All For the Love of Snow Leopards

Suzi Eszterhas

Dear Friends,

Wishing you a wonderful start to the New Year! I truly feel a sense of optimism and hope for positive change for both animals and people in 2023, thanks to your unwavering and altruistic support.

I am delighted to share with you that we were able to exceed our fall fundraising campaign goal of $150,000 by $10,000!  Your generous gifts all throughout the year allowed us to save the lives of snow leopards from conflict over livestock and build lasting compassionate human-wildlife coexistence through local community guardianship.  Thank you so very much!

We hope you enjoy our first winter newsletter of 2023, which coincides with the magnificent snow leopard’s breeding season.

Living in one of the planet’s most hostile environments has extreme inherent challenges. SLC’s purpose is to ensure the survival of snow leopards by reducing the anthropogenic (human-related) threats to this incredible alpine big cat. We are deeply grateful for your trust and dedicated support for helping us reduce these threats, giving snow leopards the chance to thrive.

Preventing retributive killings of snow leopards and community-based conservation were reported as priorities by the range countries and GSLEP. SLC’s immediate goal is to ensure local communities, and especially herders come to perceive snow leopards and other wildlife as assets, rather than pests. Our ultimate goal is for snow leopards to be valued as an essential component in the high mountain ecosystem and that communities will demonstrate coexistence and guardianship toward this vulnerable big cat. We are striving for vibrant landscapes and robust, culturally rich communities that are more resilient to climate change, habitat degradation, and the loss of biodiversity. Human health, animal health, and environmental health are intrinsically interconnected as the future of people is interdependent with that of the snow leopard, an apex predator. All our interventions are implemented by SLC’s partners, working closely with local communities in 7 of the 12 snow leopard range countries.

During my visit to Central Asia, it was an honor to meet in person with SLC’s partners with Land of Snow Leopard (LOSL) and Irbis Mongolia in Kyrgyzstan and Mongolia. Working with partners, including LOSL’s Indigenous Cultural Practitioners (ICPs) Zharparkul Raimbekov and Buyanbadrakh Erdenetsogt, and witnessing the on-the-ground impact of our collaborative programs firsthand was a heart to heart experience I will never forget.

Other highlights included meeting with teachers and students from the Nature Trunk expansion program and Ethno Ecocamp program in Kyrgyzstan. Ms. Umut Zholdoshova, Project Coordinator of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and her son Aklybek joined us to share their enthusiasm of the educational program that integrates culture, spirituality, and ecology into fun, interactive activities. This program is inspiring youth and adults into conservation action.

Umut shared that while she had worked in biodiversity conservation and sustainability throughout her career, it wasn’t until her 8 year old son, Akylbek, went through the program that she realized the true value of education in conservation. Akylbek, pictured below wearing a snow leopard SpiritHood, is now a champion for snow leopards, sharing all his knowledge to inspire his younger sister and peers about how to save this incredible cat.

A supporter of SLC for more than a decade, SpiritHoods, generously donated both snow leopard and wolf hoods to accompany all of the Nature Trunks as we began the next phase of incorporating new lessons involving spirituality and culture specific to the different regions. These lessons emphasize the importance and interdependence of all species, building understanding and reverence for all beings living in their shared high mountain ecosystem. The teachers and Indigenous Cultural Practitioners (ICPs) are elated about the trunk program and the impact it is having with their students through the inspiring, educational lessons that blend traditional knowledge and science.

While in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, I also had the fantastic opportunity to join a Nature Trunk School Ecocamp training with a 6th grade class led by SLC’s partner Tungalagtuya Khuukhenduu (Nomadic Nature Conservation).

In 2021, the award-winning Nomadic Nature Trunk program expanded, with the generous support of the Pawanka Fund, to serving urban schools in addition to rural families living directly in snow leopard habitat, reaching a larger proportion of secondary students. This is critically important to snow leopard conservation as half of all Mongolians now live in the capital city.

A delightful, charismatic instructor, Tunga led the inspiring Trunk lessons on all aspects of a high mountain ecosystem, including snow leopard conservation. It was evident the students and teachers were elated to receive the training and carry it forward with their peers. We all left feeling inspired!

Our partner of 18 years, the Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development Organization’s (BWCDO) extraordinary accomplishments have led to equal involvement of both girls and boys in school conservation programming and International Snow Leopard Day celebrations. Their accomplishments also include construction of predator-proof corrals, benefitting over 5,000 households, livestock, and wildlife in Gilgit-Baltistan.

In 2022, BWCDO began a new chapter under the very capable leadership of Dr. Muhammad Zaman, with ambitious goals to continue and expand this important work.

As we move swiftly into the new year, we are happy to share a few other updates on our plans to make 2023 the best year yet for snow leopards.

We are excited to launch the second phase of the One Health veterinary project in Nepal with International Veterinary Outreach and Nepali partners and expand facilitation of community livelihood and entrepreneurial development as well as other conservation interventions, such as training of Foxlight use in Nepal, Mongolia, and other range countries.

With below zero temperatures in Hemis National Park, we hope to catch a glimpse of our favorite cat – the Queen of the Mountains – during her breeding season and perhaps a Himalayan wolf and Pallas’s Cat, too. If we’re successful, we will share our pictures with you, our wonderful supporters. Our deepest gratitude to you.  We couldn’t do this work without you!

Wishing you peace, good health and happiness in the new year, and always.

Yours very truly,