By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL: To achieve the survival and conservation of snow leopard and its prey species by reducing threats and applying sustainable land and forest management in critical habitats in Northern Pakistan including Chitral and Azad Kashmir, a project was launched funded by Global Environment Facility (GEF) Trust Fund.
In the launching ceremony of the project named ‘Pakistan Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program’ (PSLEP) here on Saturday, the speakers said that loss of habitat and prey, retaliatory killing to save livestock, poaching and climate changes were the major threats leading to its extinction.
They said that the interventions of the project included adopting landscape level approach, protected area expansion and strengthening, participatory conservation in snow leopard model landscapes through sustainable community development and support for international cooperation and conservation and management actions informed by knowledge, awareness and monitoring and evaluation.
Regarding the projected outcomes of the project, they said that the target area of the project covers critical snow leopard habitats across Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Hindukush mountain ranges of northern Pakistan where three ‘model’ snow leopard landscapes will be established.
“At least 1.5 million hectares of critical snow leopard landscapes will be effectively managed under integrated participatory management landscape approaches, 4000 households will directly benefit through resource management approaches and multiple use and sustainable landscape approaches will be institutionalized through national legislative, policy and institutional arrangements in the three provinces”, they said.
The speakers said that Pakistan was amongst the 12 countries in the globe which supported the population of snow leopard and Chitral was known for being the major habitat of the wild cat and it was here that an eminent American zoologist was succeeded in 1980s to take a photograph of the animal from a closed range for the first time which brought this region into limelight.
The 5-year project, worth of Rs.650 million will be supervised by the federal ministry of Climate Change and implemented by Snow Leopard Foundation (SLF) while the project assurance is being provided by the United Nations Development Program.
Those who spoke on the occasion included chief conservator of KP Wildlife Department Safdar Ali Shah, district naib nazim Maulana Abdul Shakoor, director of SLF Dr. Ali Nawaz, deputy director of SLF Jaffar uddin and regional program manager Shafiqullah Khan.
