A meeting of the expert section on snow leopard conservation of the Working Group on the conservation and restoration of certain rare and endangered wildlife in the Russian Federation took place. The draft on methodological recommendation on the conduct and organization of accounting and monitoring of snow leopards in the Russian Federation and a draft monitoring program were considered. It will help monitor the state of snow leopard populations in the transboundary zone of the Russian Federation and Mongolia.
The event took place on March 3 at the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources and was chaired by Amirkhan Amirkhanov, Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Supervision of Environmental Management, head of the expert section.
“Our goal is to obtain annual objective information on the state of the main snow leopard populations and the factors influencing them as a basis for developing adequate practical measures for long-term conservation of the species,” said Alexander Karnaukhov, senior project coordinator of the Altai-Sayan branch of the WWF.
The draft guidelines identified different approaches to organizing frontal surveys to determine the total abundance and distribution boundaries of the snow leopard in Russia and an annual sample survey to track the dynamics of the leopard population in key habitats.
Today, in Russia, snow leopard monitoring is carried out in four regions: the Altai Republic, the Tyva Republic, the Krasnoyarsk Territory and the Buryatia Republic. Among the habitats of transboundary groups, the expert identified five key areas: the Southern Altai, Tabyn-Bogdo-Ola, Sailyugem, Chikhachev, Tsagan-Shibetu and Eastern Sayan ranges. According to Alexander Karnaukhov, an agreement has been reached with the Mongolian side on the simultaneous monitoring of the snow leopard every two years. This year, it is planned to start census work on the Saylyugem ridge.
According to the draft methodological recommendations, the data obtained as part of the accounting work is entered into a special application for further processing and analysis.
Amirkhan Amirkhanov suggested that the expert section approve the presented methodological projects and send them for further approval by the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources.
