WWF’s 4 year Project

WWF started a 4 year project in October 2012 which focuses on the conservation of wild snow leopard habitats. In doing so, this project promotes water security and also prepares communities for the impacts that climate change will bring about in Central Asia. This project aims to run all the way through till 30 September 2016.

This USAID-funded, $4.7 million Conservation and Adaptation in Asia’s High Mountain Landscapes and Communities Project will carry out field activities and alliances will be formed among 6 (Bhutan, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and India) out of the 12 main countries with the highest Snow Leopard population.

The main issue here is that the high mountains found in Central Asia not only supplies one-third of freshwater for the world’s population, but is also home to the endangered snow leopards. However, due to the impacts of climate change, increasing temperatures has inevitably led to glaciers melting at rapid paces leading to changes in water availability.

To counter this problem, this project aims to make improvements in the management of these high mountain landscapes. This will help affected communities cope better with the effects of climate change and at the same time conserve snow leopard habitats in these areas.

Project Goals
This project aims to create greater awareness and involve as many communities locally and internationally in the conservation efforts for the snow leopards. WWF believe that the most effective way in doing so is to integrate these conservation efforts with the well-being of locals such as their water and food security and to help them adapt better to the changing climate. Their specific objectives include:

1) Climate-smart landscape management
Under this project, high mountain landscape of Central Asia will be firstly assessed in order to identify areas which are particularly vulnerable and to pick out opportunities whereby actions can be done to address the problems. Different efforts will be taken up for different locations in order to effectively promote conservation of the leopards and to ensure sustainable development with the effects of climate change.

2) Improve transnational collaboration
Other than local community-based conservation efforts, this project aims to encourage cooperation beyond national boundaries among the 6 participating countries. With information sharing and increased availability of data, this project will not only help to strengthen existing collaborations but also encourage more of such partnerships with other networks worldwide.

Project Activities

  • Activities will focus on climate-smart strategies, increased transnational cooperation, improved assessment on threats posed by climate change, adapting to these changes and snow leopard conservation.
  • In order for greater outreach, project staff will partner up with local organisations to teach the members of the community ways to monitor the snow leopard populations and to implement anti-poaching initiatives. Community members will also form small groups which will be responsible in surveying snow leopard populations in different areas.
  • Assessments will also be conducted in the 6 countries to pick out areas vulnerable to the effects of climate change. This will help to guide the implementation of projects to cope with the impacts on communities locally and downstream. this assessment will also help in monitoring the progress of the community’s adaptation to the changing climate.
  • During the project period, WWF and its partners, namely the Snow Leopard Trust, the Snow Leopard Network and the different governments will hold workshops which aim to integrate snow leopard conservation into the context of the impacts of climate change to glaciers, water supply and local communities. This will encourage the formation of more regional cooperations to conserve the high mountain landscapes in Asia.

Accomplishments
At the end of 2012, this project was approved by USAID and the project team has been continually engaging communities and societies to raise more awareness and gain more support for this project.