How a Mongolian activist helps snow leopards and herders coexist

In April, Bayara’s work to avoid wasting Mongolia’s snow leopards received her the Goldman Environmental Prize, an annual award that honors grassroots environmental activists from six continents. In an interview with Yale Surroundings 360, Bayara talked about how she satisfied indigenous communities to work along with her, the most important threats nonetheless going through snow leopards, and the way, after 20 years of working to guard them, she has but to see the elusive mountain animal within the wild.

Yale Surroundings 360: How did your love affair with snow leopards start?

Bayarjargal Agvaantseren: I grew up in a small village in northern Mongolia, the place my father was a trainer. After learning language and literature within the capital, Ulaanbaatar, I labored as a trainer and translator for main American snow leopard researcher Tom McCarthy. For him, I interviewed herders in southern Mongolia about their attitudes towards leopards. I used to be hooked. They grew to become my work. In 2007, I created the Snow Leopard Conservation Group in Mongolia to conduct analysis and develop community-based conservation.

E360: Snow leopards are often known as the ghosts of the mountains. Inform us about them.

Agvaantseren: There are solely between 4,500 and seven,000 of them left on the earth, typically hiding and searching in distant mountainous areas of Asia. Mongolia has the second largest inhabitants on the earth, after China, estimated at between 1,000 and 1,200. We take into consideration 1 / 4 of the Mongolian inhabitants lives within the mountains of the South Gobi area, close to the border with China. It is a crucial habitat and migration route for Leopards, with one of many densest populations on the earth.

Many [of the leopards] dwell in two nationwide parks – the Gurvansaikhan Gobi Nationwide Park and the Nice Gobi, a strictly protected space – the place they discover their most important prey species such because the Ibex and the Siberian Argali, a wild mountain sheep. They’re very elusive. In 20 years of working in these distant areas, I’ve by no means seen one within the wild. However our radio collar research present that they transfer round loads. And a few dwell within the grasslands between the parks, the place they often prey on herds of goats. That’s the place we created the brand new reserve.

E360: So there was a battle.

Agvaantseren: Sure. Once I labored with Tom, the herders advised me that snow leopards are their enemies, as a result of they raid their herds and wreck their livelihoods. There are some poachers, who hunt the Pelts in addition to the bones for drugs. However many of the leopard killings by herders are retribution for shedding livestock.

That is comprehensible. I by no means blame them. The lack of goats and different livestock just isn’t very giant. However for a poor herder, shedding even just a few goats is an enormous loss.

I bear in mind in 2009, when our basis had simply began a long-term research of snow leopards utilizing GPS collars, I bought a name from our analysis camp saying that certainly one of our first two analysis cats had been discovered lifeless. We knew the animal effectively from monitoring it. He was like a pal to us. We had given him a reputation: Bayartai. However he bought right into a livestock pen and killed 26 animals. It was an enormous loss for the farmer, so he killed the leopard in retribution.

This expertise bought us enthusiastic about how we might assist finish the battle. We did not wish to use the power of regulation. We needed to work with the herders, to deliver them round by addressing the financial losses they suffered from the leopards.

A method ahead is to assist them diversify their revenue. Once I first began working with them over 20 years in the past, I needed to assist them enhance their revenue by making handmade merchandise comparable to toys, luggage and necklaces from wool and different native supplies, and discovering markets that minimize out the intermediary. We arrange snow leopard companies, which now promote their handmade merchandise world wide by means of the US-based Snow Leopard Belief.

We additionally regarded into livestock insurance coverage to guard herders financially from losses from leopard assaults. In Mongolia, folks don’t normally insure something. So we arrange a scheme. It’s very native. For the primary 5 years, we helped fund it, however now they run it themselves. Individuals who enroll must decide to defending snow leopards and leaving grazing areas to assist the leopards’ pure prey, which is able to cut back assaults on their herds.

E360: So what’s the most important menace to snow leopards now?

Agvaantseren: About 10 years in the past, we recognized a brand new and rising menace to each leopards and herders: Mining. Mines take leopard habitat and scare away their prey, whereas additionally lowering herders’ pastures. The tip consequence can also be to extend leopard-herder battle by driving herds of cattle into leopard habitat.

In 2009, we discovered that nearly the complete mountain space the place we labored with the herders had been given permission to go looking. Then we realized that this space additionally had one of many highest densities of snow leopards on the earth. So we determined to battle again. We grew to become political activists as a lot as researchers.

We began by telling the locals what was occurring – that their pastureland was being given away. Then we approached the native authorities within the Gurvantes district. There have been already energetic mines within the surrounding space, so we prompt that we preserve a few of the land. They responded positively and agreed to create a neighborhood protected space, which was established in 2010.

Creating the reserve stopped new mining licenses from being issued. We hoped that the previous, current licenses that had not been put up would quickly expire. However then we found there was a loophole. Mining corporations have been promoting previous licenses to one another, which mechanically prolonged their life. We’d by no means be freed from the menace. So we realized that we wanted the next degree of safety: a state reserve that might cancel all mining licenses. We began a nationwide marketing campaign.

E360: You determined to get into the mining trade? That will need to have been an enormous problem.

Agvaantseren: Sure. Mining has been a booming enterprise in Mongolia in current a long time. Particularly within the South Gobi, the place there are enormous coal mines just like the Talvan Tolgoi mine, one of many largest on the earth. We all know that it will likely be very troublesome to cease additional growth. Mining pursuits in Mongolia, after all, are a lot stronger politically than conservation pursuits.

Issues regarded grim for some time. Throughout this time, certainly one of our most charismatic researchers mysteriously died. After a sequence of assaults and threats in opposition to him, when he was advised to keep away from the South Gobi, his physique was discovered floating in a lake.

However our partnership with the native folks gave us the power to proceed. The herders advised us that that they had anticipated the mining trade to profit them. However they discovered that as a substitute it made their livelihoods weak as a result of they misplaced their pastures. The belief we constructed with them actually helped.

The cupboard rejected our proposal to show the native reserve right into a state reserve 3 times. However we had a number of public consciousness that this land wanted to be protected, and two girls members of the Nationwide Meeting got here out strongly for us. In 2016, issues got here collectively. There was an election arising. We used that. Politicians needed votes and made guarantees. I nonetheless marvel if we might have received with out an election. We’ll by no means know, however quickly after that the State Reserve was declared. And all of the mining licenses within the reserve have been revoked, the final time on the finish of final 12 months.

The marketing campaign took six years, however I really feel like we have been proper on time.

E360: So how is the reserve progressing?

Agvaantseren: The Tost Tosonbumba Nature Reserve covers 2,800 sq. miles. Collectively, the 2 nationwide parks and the reserve now create a steady space of ​​leopard habitat protecting 31,000 sq. miles, an space roughly the scale of Maine. However the reserves are managed very in another way. The parks are strictly protected, and are funded by the state. Whereas the Reserve – the primary reserve anyplace on the earth devoted to the Snow Leopard – receives no state funding, and is managed by our Snow Leopard Conservation Basis.

We handle it with native communities, and the herders can proceed their livelihood. There are over 200 households within the reserve and over 30,000 livestock. They’re nonetheless largely nomadic. They’ve sure locations within the valleys that they return to within the winter. However they don’t have concrete homes or cabins. They dwell many of the 12 months in felt tents, following their herds. And naturally that is open land, so there aren’t any fences.

We’re within the early phases. We’re nonetheless understanding a administration plan with the local people. However we now have skilled the native herders on find out how to monitor the park and patrol it. It’s a huge dedication for them. They want a number of assist. It won’t occur in a single day, however we’re working to construct their capability. We hope that in the long run the reserve can be managed by the neighborhood.

E360: Do you consider the reserves will final?

Agvaantseren: Sure. Proper now there isn’t any mining happening. It could be unlawful. However there’s mining within the surrounding areas, and we now have challenges from unlawful mining. So we now have to be vigilant.

There are different urgent points. We now have to take care of habitat for leopards and their prey within the face of local weather change. The local weather has grow to be extra extreme. There’s extra snow within the winter, and the summer time droughts are getting worse. Native folks discuss local weather change. They see that the grass for his or her livestock is disappearing. A variety of animals are dying. As a result of the land just isn’t producing as a lot grass, the herds have to maneuver extra typically. And that degrades the land much more.

One other concern is that they’re elevating extra goats, due to the expansion of the cashmere trade. It’s worthwhile. So whereas the pastures are deteriorating, the herders are conserving extra animals. We try to encourage them to cut back their livestock numbers. To go for high quality fairly than amount. However that is an ongoing drawback.

E360: So what future do you see for the area?

Agvaantseren: I feel most nations have gotten extra city now. However whereas Ulaanbaatar is closely polluted, half of Mongolians nonetheless dwell in rural areas, and most of them are in herding communities. However we now have to maintain house for the snow leopards, particularly in locations just like the South Gobi. And if they aren’t taken over by mines in the long run, these locations should assist the economic system in different methods. Herding will proceed to be part of it, I am certain. However I feel we are able to have a well-managed tourism program—based mostly on snow leopards and run by native communities. Individuals will come hoping to see the mountain ghosts. And I hope that at some point I’ll see one too.