Twelve countries discuss snow leopards
26.03.2015
The Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP) held its first Steering Committee meeting on 19-20 March 2015 in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Hosted by the State Agency of Environmental Protection and Forestry of the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic, the meeting was co-organized and funded by the GSLEP Working Secretariat, Global Environment Facility (GEF), Global Tiger Initiative (GTI), Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU), Snow Leopard Trust (SLT), United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The consultation meeting was opened by Tayirbek Sarpashev, First Vice Prime Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic and chaired by Sabir Atadjanov, Director, State Agency on Environment Protection and Forestry under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.
Elbegzaya Batjargal, Regional Programme Officer of the Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub, took part in the meeting, where the governments and researchers of 12 range countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) that share the snow leopard habitats, discussed the status of follow-up actions on the Bishkek Declaration of the Snow Leopard Forum of 2013 and reviewed the progress of the GSLEP operations at national and global level. The participating countries shared their progress on development of the management plan for conservation of snow leopards and its 23 landscapes identified by the countries.
The participants discussed the need to better understand the role and value of this charismatic species and good practices and experiences were presented in evaluating the ecosystem goods and services provided by the snow leopard landscapes.
Knowledge-sharing and communication and networking tools were demonstrated to the participants, including platforms such as the www.snowleopard.org website and the web-based community that communicates in the eight languages of the participating countries. Innovations and new initiatives in resource mobilization attracting private sector partners were discussed and concrete examples of the countries, such as India who raised USD 5 million for conservation purposes and Bhutan’s experience of setting up aside the Conservation Trust Fund were set forth as good practices. During the discussions on resource mobilization, Yoko Watanabe, GEF Programme Manager for Biodiversity Conservation, made a presentation on current and pipeline projects funded by the GEF on snow leopard conservation. In her presentation she emphasized that the GEF efforts to address multiple aspects of snow leopard conservation through national and regional level projects designed jointly with the snow leopard range countries. The outcome expected is a resolution of the meeting signed by the governments of the 12 range countries. Meeting participants joined the Nooruz cultural celebration in Bishkek on 21 March 2015.
For the Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub, the event provided the opportunity to interact with experts on conservation of this high-altitude species and meet colleagues from similar regional and global initiatives as Asia High Mountains Project by WWF-USA and Snow Leopard Network to exchange ideas on potential collaboration. Elbegzaya Batjargal commented on working modalities of the proposed regional initiative, and supporting capacity building and grounding experiences of successfully regional modalities such as ICIMOD’s on the standardization of data and data sharing protocols in Central Asia, in particular for Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan with the highest of mountain ranges hosting major habitats of the snow leopards.
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News by Elbegzaya Batjargal of the Mountain Partnership Central Asia Hub
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