Snow Leopard: Enigmatic big cat of High Asia now National Symbol of Kyrgyzstan
- January 3, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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Snow Leopard: Enigmatic big cat of High Asia now National Symbol of Kyrgyzstan
Subject : Environment
Section: Species in news
In the news:
- The Snow leopard, the mysterious and enigmatic symbol of High Asia with its host of mountain ranges stretching from the Altai to the Himalayas, is now the national symbol of Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet Republic in Central Asia.
Details:
- Inner Asia comprises mountain ranges such as the Altai, Tian Shan, Nan Shan, Kunlun Shan, Pamir, Karakorum, Hindu Kush, and of course, the Tibetan Plateau and the Himalayas.
- This region is home to most of the snow and ice on Earth outside the poles. From this region, at least 15 rivers fan out in every direction across the Asian continent.
- This ‘Water Tower of Asia’ provides essential ecosystem services — it provides clean water for a third of the world’s population. It is estimated to be warming at nearly two times the average rate of warming in the Northern Hemisphere.
- Snow leopard conservation received a boost a decade ago with the Bishkek Declaration on Snow Leopard Protection being unanimously adopted at the World Snow Leopard Conservation Forum in 2013.
Snow Leopard range countries:
- The snow leopard’s habitat range extends across the mountainous regions of 12 countries across Asia: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Programme (GSLEP):
- GSLEP is an unprecedented alliance of all snow leopard range countries, non-governmental organizations, multi-lateral institutions, scientists and local communities, united by one goal: saving the snow leopard and its mountain ecosystems.
- Mission: The snow leopard range countries agree, with support from interested organizations, to work together to identify and secure at least 20 snow leopard landscapes across the cat’s range by 2020 or, “Secure 20 by 2020.”
World Snow Leopard Conservation Forum:
- On October 22-23, 2013, representatives of 12 snow leopard range countries and the international conservation community gathered in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, for the Global Snow Leopard Conservation Forum, jointly organized by the Office of the President of the Kyrgyz Republic Almazbek Atambayev and the State Agency on Environmental Protection and Forestry under the Government of the Kyrgyz Republic.
- The objective of the Forum is to discuss urgent actions and a new global strategy to address the conservation of the endangered snow leopard and its habitat in the critical ecosystems of Central Asia.
- The Forum is co-organized by Global Tiger Initiative, NABU, Snow Leopard Trust, UNDP, and World Bank and sponsored by Global Environment Facility, Snow Leopard Conservancy, and WWF.