Big Cat Conservation: A Global Alliance

Greetings donors!

The Worldwide Indigenous Science Network (WISN) and our indigenous and science-based partners have been very busy the past few months working on a number of projects, including networking indigenous big cat cultural practitioners and Western scientists for snow leopard conservation.

Currently, our efforts have been aimed at bringing the indigenous knowledge of snow leopards into the conversation with United Nation conservation strategies for snow leopard conservation. We will bring a small delegation to the Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) meeting in Kazakhstan October of this year. This is groundbreaking work. The indigenous perspective or voice is rarely given a platform at these global gatherings, and it will be the second time within the past three years that WISN has helped facilitate a meeting like this. 

We had one additional snow leopard success to report on—the publication of an article, “Snow Leopards: Biodiversity of the World: Conservation from Genes to Landscapes,” which includes a section contributed by WISN founder Dr. Apela Colorado on the indigenous perspective to conservation. This publication is the only comprehensive work on the biology, behavior, and conservation status of the snow leopard, a species that has long been one of the least studied, and hence poorly understood, of the large cats.

We are hopeful that our efforts are raising awareness of conserving these sacred animals, which are currently estimated at only 4,000-6,000 throughout the 12 snow leopard range countries.

Thank you for your ongoing support of this work!

Links:

• Link to the publication