Snow Leopard Action Planning in China

In collaboration with Beijing Forestry University’s Wildlife Institute (WI), Wildlife Without Borders UK (WSF) and China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA), WildCRU will be joining the first National Meeting for Snow Leopard Conservation and Monitoring in China on 9-11th November 2012. Representatives from across China, including all snow leopard range provinces within the country, will come together to plan and prioritize snow leopard conservation actions in China. The meeting will involve knowledge mapping exercises, training workshops for monitoring snow leopards and their prey, and the launch of the national snow leopard conservation action plan for China. The three-day meeting builds on the continuing work on snow leopard biology and conservation by WildCRU and the Wildlife Institute, supported by SFA, the Starr Foundation and the Robertson Foundation. This initiative links with the well received UK Darwin Initiative funded project “Building capacity for wild felid conservation in China”, also in collaboration with the WI, which is training management and ground staff to assess and monitor wild cat populations and developed a network for the conservation of all of China’s wild cat species. China is of critical importance for global snow leopard conservation, being custodian to half of the world’s population and including numerous important sites linking the species range. The meeting is the first step towards a national assessment of snow leopard populations and will create a robust working network to enable effective monitoring of their status and threats across this unique country.