The tragedy of the commons arises when many individuals, act independently and rationally consulting their own self-interest, resulting in a unintentional depletion of shared limited resource.

The tragedy of the common has always been a problem when common goods and resources are involved. In this case, the snow leopards can be seen as a shared limited resource, shared in terms of the fact that the leopards are there for people to freely enjoy their beauty and presence on earth. As we can see, the underlying issue for all the threats that are faced by the endangered snow leopards have got to do with different groups of people acting based on their own self-interest.

This theory is very evident when we look at the demand for snow leopard’s fur and body parts. Due to human’s desire to make snow leopards a financial commodity, we see a resulting decline in the leopard population. Since humans are the ones benefiting from this at the expense of the snow leopards, many will tend to overuse this ‘resource’ till it is no longer available, or in this case, extinct.

Thus, the tragedy of commons theory can be used as a summary for why we should play our part in conserving the snow leopards.

The tragedy of commons can be solved using different methods such as through government Intervention – government policies and legislations, changing behaviour via incentives or disincentives and educating the public  to make them more aware about such an issue and what they can do to play their part in reducing the impacts and of course through ethics and human morality.