Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

Cottage Industry
Provide income generation opportunities for communities
in snow leopard habitat through handicraft
manufacture and marketing opportunities with direct and
transparent linkages to wildlife conservation via contracts
that provides positive incentives for compliance.
• Conduct socio-economic assessment of target community
to assess income generation needs and opportunities
• Conduct biological baseline survey to enable impact
monitoring
Research required prior to taking action:
• Identify the nature and extent of the conservation
threat to be addressed and actions required
Action
Guidelines
Policy level
Community level
Steps:
• Gain government recognition
of need and importance of community
generated conservation
contracts
• Gain local governments and/or
Protected Area administration
support in development of conservation
contracts
• Establish communication channels
for reporting contract violations
Contract development
• Identify stakeholders who have an active or passive influence
on the conservation threat
• With stakeholders, determine benefits of added income
through marketing handicrafts
• With stakeholders, define conservation actions the community
will commit to in exchange for additional income
generation opportunities
• Prepare conservation contract with explicit conservation
and business commitments
• Establish incentive structure (e.g. bonus payment) to encourage
compliance with conservation contract
• Develop monitoring protocols and success indicators
Handicraft development
• Evaluate skills, available materials, production capacity,
and training needs
• Undertake market research to determine demand and
product development needs
• Initiate product development with designer input based on
materials; capacity; and market demand
• Identify possible support partners (micro-credit, business
development, skills training and capacity building)
• Prepare and implement a business plan that considers production,
transportation, and marketing costs, and includes
a distribution strategy
• Conduct ongoing independent scientific monitoring to ensure contract compliance
Stakeholders:
• Protected Areas administration
and wildlife conservation agencies
• International or local development
and conservation NGO’s
• Micro-credit banks and agencies
• Local communities in snow leopard habitat, particularly in
buffer zones of Protected Areas
• Local businesses and traders
36 | SNOW LEOPARD SURVIVAL STRATEGY