Snow Leopard Project of WWF-Pakistan is dedicated to enhancing the existing information base about the Snow leopard and its conservation through community participation.
The key to Snow leopard conservation lies in the proper demarcation of the actual Snow leopard habitat, and making the communities living in the Snow leopard range its key protectors. There is a growing market for the bones, skin and organs of Snow leopard for traditional Asian medicine. Villagers with growing domestic livestock herds have encroached into the Snow leopard habitat, crowding out the native preys. Villagers in the Snow leopard range of Pakistan depend on their flocks of livestock. Snow leopards are turning to the domestic preys, which are kept in roughly built corrals and stone pen, that can easily be penetrated by Snow leopards. The herders have little choice but to resort to retaliatory killing.
The project is in line with the principles of “Strategic Plan for Snow Leopard Conservation in Pakistan”