Nepal’s latest snow leopard population estimate underscores the country’s commitment to safeguarding snow leopards and their fragile mountain ecosystems. It also highlights key conservation priorities, including the need for enhanced protection measures in snow leopard landscapes to ensure long-term population viability. Similarly, the findings recognize that sustainable conservation strategies must integrate community participation and conflict management measures. The results also emphasize the importance of managing snow leopard habitats beyond protected areas.
“To this end, efforts are currently underway to further enhance and strengthen the connectivity of snow leopard habitats across the eastern Himalayas through WWF’s newly launched initiative, the Greater Himalayan Transboundary Conservation Landscape. The initiative will work to connect almost 25 million acres of conserved areas critical for snow leopard recovery,” says Dechen Dorji, vice president for Asian wildlife conservation at WWF-US.
Snow leopards—found in 12 range countries across Asia—are among the least studied of the big cats. In 2021, a WWF publication showed that just about 23% of snow leopard’s global range has been systematically studied, and less than 3% have empirical data on abundance. In the recent past, Mongolia, Bhutan and India have used PAWS guidelines to establish national snow leopard populations. These assessments, now including Nepal, add to growing information on the species, which will aid in improving understanding and conservation of this majestic species and their high mountain ecosystems
The success of this initiative underscores Nepal’s global leadership in snow leopard conservation and highlights the importance of continued investment in scientific research, community-based conservation, and transboundary cooperation to secure the future of this species.
The assessment was conducted following Global Snow Leopard & Ecosystem Protection Program (GSLEP)'s Population Assessment of the World’s Snow Leopards (PAWS) guidelines under the leadership of Nepal’s Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation, whose members comprised of individual researchers and conservation organizations including WWF.
