Annual Report - 2006
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ANNUAL REPORT - 2006 Big Strides for Snow Leopard Conservation I am tremendously pleased that November 2005 at the the Snow Leopard Conservancy will National Geographic Society’s be welcoming in early 2007 Som Ale, Washington D.C. head- (at right), a Nepalese biologist and quarters, and His Holiness’s conservationist currently com- subsequent urging of Tibetans pleting his PhD at the University of to stop wearing the skins of Illinois. Som will be joining us for tigers, snow leopards and an extended period of “on-the-job” other endangered animals. In training. I have known Som since I the Feb. 15, ’06 issue of served as his advisor when he Britain’s “The Independent,” attended Tribhuvan University in Justin Huggler wrote: Kathmandu in 1990. A rich and unusual smoke Som will lead our Nepal program has been drifting into the as well as facilitate programs and Tibetan skies. People have provide training to local con- been emerging from their servationists in Nepal, India, homes and burning furs and animal It is gratifying to know that Pakistan and hopefully also Tibet. skins. Onlookers have gathered to people everywhere care what watch as Tibetans burned tiger skins happens to the earth’s remaining worth as much as £6,000 in the wild cats. Fully seventy-eight streets... percent of the Snow Leopard Conservancy’s funding in 2006 In one town, it is said you can see came from individuals who share the smoking ruins of tiger skins and other our determination to help local furs along the roadside. These scenes communities become the best are not part of some exotic ritual. They guardians of their snow leopards. are part of a major new environmental drive among Tibetans... We think of our donors — individuals, foundations and The Chinese government has companies — as members of a Som photographed the cat seen enacted legislation prohibiting special family whose names can still here in 2005; it was the first international trade in endangered fit on one page of our annual report, confirmed sighting of the elusive species, although skins are still sold but who are a powerful force for snow leopard on the Nepal side of openly in some cities. But the network conservation. Kids alone raised over Mount Everest since the 1960s. of protected areas along the Tibetan $2,000 for our in-country education Plateau has been expanded, a critical programs. That’s partnership at its There is mixed news to report action, as China is thought to harbor best! following the forum with His Holiness some 60% of the snow leopard’s the XIV Dalai Lama, held in habitat. Congratulations to our colleagues at the International Snow Leopard Trust, Rodney Jackson, Founder-Director who recently placed a satellite radio collar on a beautiful female snow leopard Snow Leopard Conservancy in the Chitral Gol region of Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province. Conservation Highlights Transforming Conflict between Snow Leopards and People to Peaceful Coexistence Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust P.O. Box 67, Leh-194101, Ladakh India email: [email protected] The summer of 2006 brought the century’s worst flooding to Ladakh, Nubra, and Zanskar. Roads, bridges, and one SLC-India Trust entire village were washed away, adobe homes were heavily Riju Raj Jamwal, Managing Trustee damaged, crops and lives were lost. To add to the challenges Renzino Lepcha & David Sonam, Trustees of community-based conservation in this remote area, a Rinchen Wangchuk, Director Jigmet Dadul, Program Assistant, Ladakh dispute between the district government and local NGOs Tashi Thundup, Program Assistant, Zanskar led to the putting on hold of many activities. Still, we were Padma Dolma, Village Steward, Ladakh able to stay on track with most of our work. Tsering Angmo & Rigzin Tundup, Education Program Coordinators Gudrun Batek & Dilpreet Singh, Volunteers Rodney Jackson, Advisor The Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust participated in a situation analysis for the Changthang Biodiversity The partnership of the Jammu & Kashmir Wildlife Conservaition and Rural Livelihoods Improvement project, Department is much appreciated. sponsored by the World Bank Global Environment Fund. With the completion of ten SLC-India Trust’s new corrals in the Zanskar and Pune-based educa- Nubra areas, we have now tion program partner, predator-proofed twenty-two Kalpavriksh, trained corrals since the program began, two village-based serving 194 households and some 3,000 head of livestock. facilitators to conduct These corrals are protecting from activities in targeted herder retaliation up to twenty rural schools. Work- snow leopards in Zanskar, five in shops reached some Nubra and ten in Ladakh. seventy children in six settlements in Hemis Himalayan Homestays National Park. The continue to grow and attract State Education De- accolades. FabIndia Overseas partment was so Pvt. Ltd. donated Rs. 150,000 worth home fabrics, impressed with Kalpavriksh’s special teaching materials curtains, and linens, helping Himalayan Homestay host (posters of the flora and fauna of northern India, inter- families improve their guest rooms and increase visitation. active games, and a teachers’ manual) that they asked The Oct. 14, 2006 Guardian Travel Section said: There are SLC-India Trust to mass produce them for wider plenty of places in India distribution. that bandy around the words “eco” and “re- Thanks to a generous sponsible”, but you have donor, SLC-India Trust to look carefully to find replaced its wornout those places that offer vehicle with a new an authentic green Indian-built Maruti holiday rather than a Gypsy. Director Rinchen Jigmet Dadul inspects the new greenwash. Himalayan Wangchuk drove the solar shower at Skyu Village Homestays is the real vehicle some 1200 km. deal. You’re invited to over unimproved moun- eat meals in the kitchen with the family...and there are plenty tain roads, since the of local trekking guides to take you to see ancient highway to Leh was monasteries and wildlife...the local thing is just what it is, closed for the winter. not what it pretends to be. The teams recalled all English and Ladakhi names of all the species that we presented visually. Even though Markha is far more remote than the school at Matho, and the children more reticent to speak, we found that they had learned and remembered the most. - Excerpt from Kalpavriksh’s Progress Report Conservation Highlights (Continued) Pakistan Program In Gojal, would not have to travel volunteer to Sost looking for work. Andrew Chinn, consultant “If the men are here Rehman Posh, again they can build the and represen- big walls. We can then revert to our traditional jobs of making tatives of the milk, yogurt and bread. We would be happy to provide food Khunjerab for the workforce.” Village Or- In Baltistan, corral predator-proofing continued at ganization several sites, and the Snow Leopard Conservancy developed a recruited a Pakistani student to undertake snow leopard methodology food habits studies in order to determine the importance for identifying of livestock in the cat’s diet. depredation hotspots in the Khunjerab National Park buffer zone. They conducted a baseline corral inventory and created an action plan for 2006-2007. Five areas were World Environment Day, identified with pens most in need of predator-proofing, June 5 and a total of thirteen corrals are scheduled for construction starting in 2007. The consultants were guests of honor at the Shepherds re- Gircha School’s celebrations. ported that in more They described the corral than 58 years no predator-proofing in part- depredation on live- nership with SLC, and stock occurred on conducted conservation Imam Panah, Chairman of the the Biobar pasture, education activities with the Education Committee but recent attacks in- children. receiving Rs. 2000 on behalf dicate that snow of SLC to initiate a snow leopard populations The students were leopard project with the have increased. In interested to hear that in teachers. fact an attack had Andrew’s homeland of just occurred three hours away, with the loss of twenty Scotland the lynx and wolf had been hunted to extinction livestock. Shepherdess Tai Bergum witnessed the snow in the 18th Century leopard attack. “It was the first time I had seen the snow and now tourists leopard and I was very scared.” went to other countries to see these wonderful Bibi Sulton expressed the views of the community. animals. They “Hopefully, SLC can document this attack and help us. Allah understood the arranged by fortune that you arrived at the time of this incident importance of pro- to help our community.” tecting the beautiful snow leopard. Tai Bergum suggested a half-time paid shepherd with a dog would benefit the community greatly. Then the men Going the Extra Mile for Snow Leopards Shop our website for gifts, www.SnowLeopardConservancy.org. Our web sales nearly doubled in 2006, from $4,525 to $8,400. Try www.Goodsearch.com and help us grow this “free” source of funding! Goodsearch directs $.01 to your designated nonprofit, every time you use their Google-sponsored engine to search the web. The Snow Leopard Conservancy received $26.33 for 2006. Does your employer have a Matching Grant program? In 2006 the Snow Leopard Conservancy received matches from Bank of America, Harder & Company, IBM, Microsoft, and Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing (SAP) Thanks to Dr. Georges Barth and the Zurich Zoo for the great photo of Dshamilja and her cub Gul’cha - soon to be available for purchase on our website! Tashi R. Ghale Conservation Captures Wild Mugu Mustang Jr. Rangers. China (Tibet) Snow Leopards Dolpa. Highlights Jr. Rangers . Mt. Everest via Camera-Trap in . Nar (Continued) Manang Manang Kathmandu Nepal In the summer of India Nepal Program 2005, Rodney Jackson trained Tashi Ghale in the set-up and operation Students Teaching Students About Snow Leopards of the CamTracker.