Snow Leopard Survival Strategy - Panthera

wetlands.
Hofer, D. 2002. The Lion’s share of the hunt: trophy
hunting and conservation: a review of the legal
eurasian tourist hunting market and trophy trade
under CITES. With contributions from Juan Carlos
Blanco, Juan Herrero, Roland Melisch, Massimiliano
Rocco, Alexey Vaisman and Ellen van Krunkelsveen.
TRAFFIC Europe Report, Brussels, Belgium.
This report on European sport hunting of wildlife reveals
that increasing number of European sport hunters hunt
in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region since the
collapse of the state-regulated markets in the early 1990s.
The study shows that trophy hunters from Europe spend
some EUR120 – 180 million on hunting related costs
each year in the region, but only a third of the income
remains in the supply countries generating very little
towards the gross national products (GNP) of the region.
Hunter, D. O. and R. J. Jackson. 1997. A range-wide
model of potential snow leopard habitat. Pages 51-
56. in R. Jackson and A. Ahmad, editors Proceedings
of the Eighth International Snow Leopard Symposium,
Islamabad, Pakistan. International Snow Leopard Trust,
Seattle, WA.
A range-wide model of potential snow leopard habitat
was produced based on the Digital Chart of the World
(DCW) 1:1,000,000 series, the digital equivalent of the
United States Defense Mapping Agencies Operational
Navigation Chart series. Using paper maps, polygons
were drawn around estimated elevation limits for snow
leopard range. Likewise the boundaries for protected
areas were drawn in. These polygons were digitized and
combined with the DCW country borders to create an
initial range map with permanent snow fields and water
bodies excluded. The resultant map of potential habitat
was categorized as “fair” for areas of slope less than
30 degrees or within designated buffer limits of human
habitation, and as “good” for areas with greater than 30
degrees slope. Standard GIS tools were used to extract
potential habitat tables for snow leopard range countries.
This table provides estimates of total habitat, good
habitat, fair habitat, and the percent of habitat within
protected areas.
Hussain, S. 2000. Protecting the snow leopard and
enhancing farmers’ livelihoods: a pilot insurance
scheme in Baltistan. Moutain Research and
Development 20(3):226-231.
Snow leopards that prey on poor farmers’ livestock pose
a twofold problem: they endanger farmers’ precarious
mountain livelihoods as well as the survival of the
snow leopard as a unique species since farmers engage
in retaliatory killings. Project Snow Leopard (PSL), a
recent pilot initiative in Baltistan, involves a partnership
between local farmers and private enterprise in the form
of an insurance scheme combined with ecotourism
activities. Farmers jointly finance the insurance scheme
through the payment of premiums per head of livestock
they own, while the remaining funds are provided by
profits from trekking expeditions focusing on the snow
leopard. The insurance scheme is jointly managed by
a village management committee and PSL staff. The
scheme is structured in such a way that villagers monitor
each other and have incentives to avoid cheating the
system.
Hussain, S. 2003. The status of the snow leopard in
Pakistan and its conflict with local farmers. Oryx,
37(1): 26–33.
Between 1998 and 2001 I carried out surveys in four
areas in the Baltistan district of the Northern Areas of
Pakistan to estimate the population of the snow leopard
and to examine the threats to its future conservation. I
estimate that a total of 36–50 snow leopards are present
in the areas surveyed. Based on the availability of suitable
snow leopard habitat and of its prey species, I estimate
that 90–120 snow leopards are potentially present in
Baltistan and 300–420 throughout its range within
Pakistan’s borders. Although this estimate is higher than
extrapolations based on earlier surveys, the long-term
future of the snow leopard is under threat. This is mainly
due to retaliatory killings by farmers, and poaching for
pelts and other body parts. Species-focused conservation
policies, particularly those targeting ungulates for
the promotion of trophy hunting, may constitute an
additional threat to snow leopard conservation in the
region. However, all forms of threats to the snow leopard
in Baltistan appear to emanate from the relatively poor
economic conditions of the local people.
IFAW and WTI. 2001. Wrap up the trade: an
international campaign to save the endangered
Tibetan antelope. International Fund for Animal
Welfare, Yarmouth Port, MA, USA and Wildlife Trust of
India, Delhi, India. 80 pp.
In summer 2000, IFAW and WTI assembled a team of
seven investigators who divided into three pairs and
assigned themselves to specific localities in the Kashmir
Valley. Their primary objective was to identify and
speak with shahtoosh weavers. In each locality they
identified a senior shahtoosh worker, who then took
them to others involved in the shahtoosh trade. Being
a small place, this technique, though time consuming,
was very productive in revealing the mechanics of the
shahtoosh shawl production process. The investigators
then went from house to house collecting data. A written
survey of 1,210 interviews were conducted in order to
determine the impact, if any at all, of a ban on shahtoosh
weaving in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. This
chapter discusses what the investigators found during
their travels.
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