UN General Assembly declares Oct 23 International Day of the Snow Leopard
On December 12, 2024, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring October 23 the International Day of the Snow Leopard, Kazinform News Agency reports.
The document titled as “International Day of the Snow Leopard” and co-authored by 61 countries, including Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, India, Kazakhstan, China, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, “invites all stakeholders to give due consideration to enhancing international and regional cooperation in support of efforts to conserve the snow leopard, given its role in the overall ecosystem.”
The resolution recognizes that the snow leopard population is already at risk of extinction. The greatest threats to the survival of the snow leopard are habitat loss and fragmentation, prey depletion and illicit trafficking, illegal hunting, including poaching, and climate change, the document reads.
Snow leopards or ounces inhabit primarily mountainous areas of 12 countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.
According worldpopulationreview.com, the total number of snow leopards in the world varies from 4,080 to 6,590. In 2017, the animal was included in the Red List of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). In Kazakhstan, their number does not reach even 200.
In October 2024, specially protected nature areas of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan signed a memorandum of cooperation aimed at conservation of the population of snow leopards. The goal of the memorandum is to conserve the snow leopards in the Northern Tien Shan mountains within four protected areas: Kazakhstan’s Kolsai Lakes National Park, Almaty State Nature Reserve, Ile-Alatau National Park, and Kyrgyzstan’s Chon Kemin National Park. The five-year agreement was initiated by the UN Development Program in Kazakhstan with the support of the Global Environmental Facility under the six-year (2018-2024) project on conservation of forest ecosystems and biodiversity including the snow leopard in Kazakhstan.
Rare Snow Leopard pic.twitter.com/5wvnMufIOm
— Gabriele Corno (@Gabriele_Corno) December 8, 2024
This Snow leopard Couple playing on the Snow in Ladhak is the best thing u will watch today .. 😍🫶❤️
— Professor (@Masterji_UPWale) March 24, 2023
Hope it reaches your TL 🤞🤞 pic.twitter.com/mUrLCBPFQf
Earlier, Kazinform reported that camera traps have recorded footage of a snow leopard mother and her three grown cubs roaming the terrain of the Kolsay Lakes National Park in southeast Kazakhstan.
