IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Mallon, D.; Kulikov, M. | |
| Aspects of Transboundary Snow Leopard Conservation in Central Asia | |
| 2015 Full Book | |
Snow Leopards are apex predators that live at naturally low densities and occupy large home ranges.Single sites, including most Protected Areas (PAs), are rarely large enough to harbour viable populations. Conservation strategies at landscape scales are therefore needed to ensure the long-term persistence of snow leopards and their prey (Snow Leopard Network 2014). In mountain regions, where national boundaries commonly run along ridges, landscapes frequently have a transboundary character. It has been estimated that up to a third of the snow leopard's known or potential range is located less than 50-100 km from the international borders of the 12 range countries (Snow Leopard Network 2014). All major snow leopard conservation initiatives during the past 15 years have underlined the need for or recommended increased transboundary-scale or - level collaboration. These include the Snow Leopard Survival Summit held in Seattle in 2002, the Rangewide Priority Setting Exercise for Snow Leopards in Beijing 2008, and the Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (McCarthy & Chapron 2003, Snow Leopard Network 2014). The Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) was initiated by the President of the Kyrgyz Republic and developed in collaboration with the World Bank/Global Tiger Initiative and other partners. GSLEP developed a global framework for government-led conservation of Snow Leopards and their habitat. The foundation of the process is a set of 12 National Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Priorities (NSLEP) (World Bank 2013). One of the GSLEP's Core Principles of Snow Leopard Conservation is 'Ensuring landscape-level transboundary conservation' (Snow Leopard Working Secretariat 2013: page 12). The FFI/CMS technical workshop "Aspects of Transboundary Snow Leopard Conservation in Central Asia" was developed to advance landscape level and transboundary conservation of snow leopards and their prey in the four countries of Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan). The workshop, which was financed through the CMS Small Grants Programme and organised by FFI, took place in the wider context of three important, related initiatives that took place in 2013-2014, all of which also recommended increased transboundary work in the region: The CMS Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI) covers 14 countries and 15 species, including Snow Leopard and Argali. A CAMI Programme of Work and Resolution were developed at a multi-stakeholder workshop in September 2014 and these documents were approved at the 11th CMS Conference of the Parties in November 2014 (CMS 2014). A revised and updated version of the Snow Leopard Survival Strategy (SLSS) was published in October 2014 by the Snow Leopard Network (SLN), an international network encompassing organizations and individuals engaged in Snow Leopard conservation worldwide (SLN 2014). A Single Species Action Plan for the Argali, one of the Snow Leopard's prey species, was produced by CMS and published in October 2014 (Mallon et al. 2014). |
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