Protection of the Snow Leopard through Kyrgyz Traditional Environmental Knowledge Project

Protection of the Snow Leopard through Kyrgyz Traditional Environmental Knowledge Project

RDF with the support of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the Christensen Foundation, as part of the initiative to conserve the snow leopard and its habitat, launched the project "Protecting the snow leopard through Kyrgyz traditional environmental knowledge".

The main goal of the project was to initiate social actions and JIBI Snow Leopard platform among schoolchildren and youth on snow leopard protection through the development and dissemination of accessible sources of information about the most popular, rare animals, birds and plants from the snow leopard habitat in the pilot regions of Kyrgyzstan. Teachers of pilot schools, and experts from the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic and the Kyrgyz Academy of Education of the Kyrgyz Republic were also involved in the project.

The project was developing an interactive map - a digital educational resource demonstrating the snow leopard habitat with animals, birds and plants. Also, RDF worked on collecting information, developing and publishing a brochure describing the most popular rare animals, birds and plants from the snow leopard habitat in Kyrgyzstan. For the collection of traditional knowledge, RDF relied on the Kyrgyz El Akyl Kazyna Network of custodians, who are represented in 7 regions of the country.

The route of the leopard habitat survey included ethnic Kyrgyz communities of Murghab district in Tajikistan, and it was expected that students from these communities would participate in the Snow Leopard Rally, which was the final event of the project.

It was planned to organize a JIBI Snow Leopard platform among young people to exchange information, raise awareness and joint actions to form local foci of protection and conservation of snow leopards and other rare and valuable animals and plants on the territory of their communities with the participation of teachers of pilot schools.