Snow Leopard Conservancy -- Mission Statement

The Snow Leopard Conservancy is dedicated to promoting innovative grassroots measures that lead local people to become better stewards of endangered snow leopards, their prey, and habitat.

The activities of humans threaten the survival of snow leopards, making people key to their shepherd's camp – Annapurna Conservation Area protection and conservation. There is a growing market for the bones, skin and organs of snow leopards for traditional Asian medicine. Villagers with growing domestic herds have moved into snow leopard habitat, crowding out the native prey. Villagers in the high mountains of Central Asia depend on their flocks of sheep and goats to supply their family’s meat, dairy products and wool. Snow leopards are turning to this domestic prey which is corralled in roughly built stone pens that are easy for snow leopards to penetrate. Even in predominantly Buddhist communities shepherds have little choice but to resort to retaliatory killing if many of their animals are lost to predation. Sadly, these magnificent cats can be surprisingly easy to kill, cowering in a corner of the livestock corral while being stoned to death.

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