Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

environment, etc. Both the causes and potential solutions
need to be investigated, as war continues to be a prospect
for parts of snow leopard range.
Potential Methods
• Review literature for impact of war on wildlife in
Central Asia, and develop a standardized framework
to record them.
• Develop communication and negotiation approach
aiming at having parties in conflict stating they won’t
use wildlife as a resource for war, therefore appearing
as potential respectable leaders.
• Because, conservationists are most likely to intervene
into post-war situations, develop guidelines for actions
for these situations, targeting all stakeholders (parties
in conflict, refugees, UN troops and humanitarian sectors).
• Build a database of past, present and possible conflicts
and identify if some snow leopard populations are at
risk.
Case Studies
Appleton, M. and J. Morris. 1997. Conservation in a
conflict area. Oryx 31(3):153-155.
Draulans, D. and E. Van Krunkelsven. 2002. The
impact of war on forest areas in the Democratic
Republic of Congo. Oryx 36(1):35-40.
Plumptre, A. J., J. B. Bizumuremyi, F. Uwimana, J. D.
Ndaruhebeye. 1997. The effects of the Rwandan
civil war on poaching of ungulates in the Parc National
des Volcans. Oryx 31(4):265-273.
Zahler, P. and P. Graham. 2001. War and wildlife:
The Afghanistan conflict and its effects on the
environment. International Snow Leopard Trust
Special Report: 1-13.
R.29 Livestock and human population status and
trends:
Human and livestock population density in snow
leopard range is far from static and has recently undergone
dramatic fluctuations stemming from the collapse
of the Soviet system, and more recently armed conflict
in various parts of the range. Conservation measures
can not rely on out-dated information on human and
livestock trends.
Potential Methods
• Identify where political changes have occurred
throughout the snow leopard range and incorporate
them into a database.
• Assess how this has affected previously mentioned
factors (poaching, economic valuation, livestock, socio-economic
profiling).
• Identify political changes have put some snow leopard
population at risks.
Case Studies
Miller, D. J. and G. B. Schaller. 1997. Conservation
threats to the Chang Tang Wildlife Reserve, Tibet.
Ambio 26(3):185-186.
Sharma, U. R.. 1992. Park-people interactions in
Royal Chitwan National Park, Nepal. Doctoral
Dissertation. University of Arizona. 275 pp.
Wambuguh O. 1998. Local communities and wildlife:
a spatial analysis of human-wildlife interactions
in Laikipia district, Kenya. Doctoral dissertation.
University of California, Berkeley.
R.30 Analysis of existing policies and laws:
Conservation will often best be accomplished through
the establishment and enforcement of sound environmental
laws. This can only be accomplished after a careful
and thorough review of the current legal framework at
the international, national, and local level.
Potential Methods
• Review legislation structure of snow leopards countries
(legal system, who does what, overall efficiency,
not snow leopard specific).
• Based on the previous step, record protection laws
(international, national and local level) and policies
and incorporate them into a database, in standardized
way.
• Identify if (i) some populations are particularly at risk
in a legal point of view, (ii) some patterns have been
particularly successful in protecting snow leopards
and could be duplicated in other places.
Case Studies
Keiter, R. B. and H. Locke. 1996. Law and large
carnivore conservation in the Rocky Mountains
of the US and Canada. Conservation Biology 10:
1003-1012.
Porter, J. C. 2002. Finding teeth for Russian Federation
tiger protection laws: using United States
gray wolf populations as an inspiration, and
United States endangered species legislation as a
model for Russian Federation endangered species
legal reform. Penn State Environmental Law Review
10(2).
Singh, J. 2002. Transboundary stakeholders: developing
cross-border conservation linkages for the
snow leopard. Pages 159-169 in T. M. McCarthy
and J. Weltzin, editors Contributed Papers to the
Snow Leopard Survival Strategy Summit. International
Snow Leopard Trust, Seattle, Washington,
USA. Available at http://www.snowleopard.org/sln/
R.31 Human attitudes to snow leopards:
Ultimately, conservation of snow leopards can not be
accomplished without the cooperation of the people who
live in snow leopard habitat, nor without the encouragement
and support of resource managers and government
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