Abstract

Snow leopards vs mining: a case study from Mongolia
Track: Conservation
Authors: Koustubh Sharma, Bayarjargal A., Purevjav Lkhagvajav, Tserennadmid Mijiddorj

Snow-leopards are distributed across 12 countries, their population could be as low as between 3,500 and 7,000 individuals. Main threats to the snow leopards include mining, retribution killing, illegal poaching and prey-reduction. For effective conservation action, it is important to give the relevant decision-makers a first-hand feel of the situation on the ground, but terrain and extreme weather conditions make it difficult to access these areas.
In the year 2009, an important snow leopard habitat in South-Gobi, Mongolia was threatened by nearly 100 mining exploration licenses. Community-based conservation initiatives, pastoral land-use, data on snow leopard movement and population, high-resolution satellite-images, and digital-elevation-models were put together for analysis of damage. 3-D video-presentations were made using the graphic datasets to decision makers and a larger global community. The lobbying efforts resulted in declaration of a 6,800km2 area as locally-protected-area, revoking the mining licenses, and connecting two important strictly-protected-areas.