Happy International Snow Leopard Day!
Today we celebrate the ultimate mountain athlete of Central Asia, the snow leopard. This incredible feline embodies high mountain ecosystems and resilience, as the ecosystems it inhabits under extreme pressures, from climate change to habitat degradation.
Snow leopards serve as a vital indicator of the health of these fragile ecosystems. Protecting them means protecting the mountain environments that millions of people and species depend on.
Through our Central Asia Program, we’re working at the intersection of technology, community action, and landscape-scale conservation. The program spans Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan, supporting community-based conservancies, strengthening protected-area management, reducing human-wildlife conflict, and curbing illegal wildlife trade.
The program together with the Ilbirs Foundation and other partners in the UN Environment Programme-led and IKI-funded Central Asian Mammals and Climate Adaptation (CAMCA) project.
Just this week, we gathered in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, with government representatives, conservation experts and community leaders to review achievements, share lessons learned, and discuss future cooperation on climate-resilient wildlife conservation and sustainable development in the mountains of Central Asia.
We are also grateful to the National Geographic Society and Fondation Segre supporting critical work in 3 community-based conservancies, two of which in the newly designated and first of its kind “Ak Ilbirs” ecological corridor. Community-led conservation is critical to the recovery of snow leopard and prey populations and in Kyrgyzstan especially we have some of the most inspiring models.
We also extend our appreciation to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technical Supervision of the Kyrgyz Republic for their support, including in addressing the challenges faced by some of the community-based conservancies which we trust will be resolved.
