🇺🇳 Snow Leopard Day
A few weeks ago I was approached by Koustubh Sharma, the Director for Science and Conservation at the Snow Leopard Trust with a somewhat unexpected request: Whether I’d be willing to provide some of my images for an exhibition at the United Nations Headquarters in NYC.
Of course that’s generally not something you’d say no to, but in this case even less so: It was for an initiative to get the United Nations General Assembly to declare the 23rd of October as “Day of the Snow Leopard”. As a big cats lover (see some of my Jaguar photos here for example, and my favorite Leopard shots in Botswana), that’s a worthwhile cause. Less than 10,000 (some say only 3000) snow leopards are left in the wild, and seeing a few of them during my trip to Ladakh was one of my most memorable travel experiences.
Specifically, the trip allowed me to see one of the rarest of rare sighting - a snow leopard hunt from start to finish. Although the combination of distance, light, and my own questionable photographic choices didn’t result in the best images, they were still special to me, and seemingly also to the Snow Leopard Trust, who asked to use them for their exhibition, intended as a final piece of encouragement to convince the general assembly members to cast their votes in the right direction.
As a result, they happened to end up being exhibited at the United Nations building this month, alongside some incredible photos from renowned wildlife and conservation photographers like Sascha Fonseca and Sebastian Kennerknecht.
(Image credit to Koustubh Sharma)
On the 4th of December 2024, in its 79th session, Agenda item 13 was ratified, paving the way for more recognition and cooperation to support the conservation of snow leopards. This is overdue, as the resolution acknowledges that the snow leopard population is already at risk of extinction. The primary threats to its survival are habitat loss and fragmentation, prey depletion, illegal trafficking, illegal hunting, including poaching, and climate change.
This follows the original establishment of Snow Leopard Day in 2013, with the adoption of the Bishkek Declaration.
At the time, 12 countries that host the vast majority of the snow leopard populations – Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan – agreed to collaborate in their conservation efforts.
Let’s hope this effort continues and will produce the desired results!
