Download - Global Tiger Initiative

aised for re-investment into wildlife conservation. The primary goal of such programmes
should be the conservation of wildlife and habitats and this is achieved through the devolution
of any benefits to the local community (Shackleton, 2001).
The longest running community-based trophy-hunting programme in Pakistan is the Torghar
Conservation Project (TCP), established in 1986 on tribal lands in the Torghar range of northwest
Balochistan (Johnson, 1997, Shackleton, 2001). This project was initiated in response to
concerns about the status of the Afghan Urial Ovis orientalis cycloceros and Markhor Capra
falconeri jerdoni populations in the Torghar Hills. It aims to stop poaching and uses the revenue
from the sale of trophy hunts to hire local people as wildlife guards if they agree to stop
poaching (Shackleton, 2001). In 1994, TCP for was formalized as a registered NGO - the
Society for Torghar Environmental Protection (STEP). In its first 10 years it generated about
USD460 000 from hunts of 14 markhors and 20 urials (Johnson, 1997). In 2001, STEP
employed 55 local game guards from several sub-tribes. The positions are distributed equitably
across the sub-tribes, which select the game guards, and this has the advantage that, not only are
the efforts of the game guard himself recruited against poachers, but also those of most of the
male members of his sub-tribe (Shackleton, 2001).
Balistan, Pakistan: Livestock insurance schemes
Project Snow Leopard is a community-based approach that aims to resolve the conflict between
local farmers and Snow Leopards in northern Pakistan. The project was initiated in 1999 with
a small grant from the Whitley Foundation and is implemented in the community of Skoyo, in
the Baltistan region of northern Pakistan. The scheme works by combining an insurance system
with eco-tourism: farmers pay insurance premiums per head of livestock into a fund managed
and administered by the community of Skoyo. The community and Project Snow Leopard staff
administer the income so generated for Snow Leopard-based eco-toursim, which is likewise
jointly organized. The concept behind the scheme is to provide farmers with incentives to
change their behaviour to protect Snow Leopards. Compensation in case of livestock losses to
Snow Leopards aims to remove the incentive for farmers to kill the cats, while additional
income through eco-tourism provides farmers with a positive incentive to conserve the local
Snow Leopard populations. Through an emphasis on community participation and the
integration of local institutions in the management and operation of the scheme, the possibilities
of fraud are reduced. This feeling of ownership of the scheme is an important component.
Because the villagers see their collective pool of money, generated from “their” common
resource - the Snow Leopard, a false claim by one individual would mean defrauding the whole
community.
Since the start of the scheme, seven claims have been filed. They have all been approved and
compensation has been paid out. Surveys in the area show that the Snow Leopard population
in the area is stable and perhaps increasing. There are plans to add corral improvements (with
barbed wire, wire mesh and iron posts) as a new component to the project and it is hoped that
this will substantially reduce livestock depredation rates, thus decreasing the number of claims
made to the insurance scheme. The money saved in this way can be invested in infrastructure
in and around the villages, to facilitate eco-tourism (Hussain , 2002).
A similar scheme was set up by WWF Russia in the Tyva Republic of the Russian Federation,
in 2000.
FADING FOOTPRINTS: the killing and trade of Snow Leopards 51