It is one of the defining questions of our time: how do we save species while improving the lives of the world’s poorest? One Central Asian organization may have the answer.
India-based Snow Leopard TrustThe model of conservation in which big cats are protected in 12 countries has been pioneered by the organization. It works with communities, including those from India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. It has implemented, among other things, insurance programmes to compensate herders when they lose livestock to snow leopards – a move designed to reduce retaliatory killings.
The model has been hailed as a success, and Dr Charudutt, the executive director of the company, won a prestigious award this week. Whitley Award, which celebrates solutions for the biodiversity crisis. The £100,000 prize will be used to export the model abroad.
Other winning initiatives include projects to save red pandas, Sumatran rhinos and Brazil’s Araucaria forest. Danni Parks, director of the award, praised the winners for “addressing the interconnected crises of species extinction, climate change and social inequality”.
Image: Snow Leopard Trust/Prasenjeet Yadav
