News

Participation in CMS/CAMI meeting in Tashkent
01.07.2025Our group and some of its members (M. Farhadinia, M. Gritsina, S. Karryeva, M. Pestov, A. Potayeva, T. Rosen and V. Terentiev, and I. Khorozyan, online) participated in the Third Range State Meeting of the CMS Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI) during 24-26 June 2025 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The PeLeWG is part of the CMS/CAMI team and its Programme of Work, as it was established to boost the implementation of the Range-wide Strategy for the Conservation of the Persian Leopard, which was developed under the auspice of CMS/CAMI. The group participants actively participated in discussions related to the current (2021-2026) and future (2026-2032) Programme of Work, species status in spatial units particularly those where Persian leopards exist, and other topics of the agenda. A number of comprehensive and thought-provoking presentations were made by T. Rosen on meeting topics and their current status, and by M. Farhadinia on the activities of the PeLeWG and their progress. This meeting has laid a firm ground to further build our group’s capacities and develop visionary workplans and funding schemes so that to realize the Range-wide Strategy more comprehensively and effectively.

The event “Empowering Guardians: Involvement of Women in Leopard Conservation in Pakistan” to celebrate International Leopard Day
13.05.2025This landmark
event was organized by the team of Dr. Muhammad Kabir, a PeLeWG member from the
Wildlife Ecology Lab of the University of Haripur, on International Leopard Day of May 3, 2025 in Ayubia National Park. It was part of the project of the same title
which was funded by Global Leopard Conference under guidance from the PeLeWG.
This event honored the majestic Persian leopard – a symbol of wilderness and
ecological harmony – while emphasizing the crucial role of women in
conservation efforts across Pakistan’s mountainous regions. Students,
educators, conservationists, park visitors, rangers and local women, with a
total of 60-70 participants, have come together to share a mission to promote
human-wildlife coexistence.
The leopard
population in Ayubia National Park and its surroundings is the largest in
Pakistan, numbering 16-20 individuals. Over the decades, poor land management
practices such as fuel wood harvesting, encroachment and urbanization have led
to deforestation, climate change and water crisis, thus threatening local
livelihoods along with the region’s biodiversity. Several iconic species, such
as the Asiatic black bear, grey goral and Himalayan monal pheasant have already
disappeared in this protected area, and the leopard may follow them unless awareness-raising
and conservation efforts are urgently undertaken.
The goal of this event was to break traditional barriers and acknowledge that women are powerful agents of change through their deep connection to nature and an integral role they play in local communities. It was marked by student speeches, an art workshop of leopard drawings and paintings, field trips to leopard habitats and camera-trap sites, and an informal meeting with Wildlife Department officials. Empowering Guardians was more than a regular event – it was a movement to launch gender-inclusive and community-driven solutions along with building bridges between scientific knowledge and grassroot empowerment. By celebrating the voices of women, inspiring the youth, and blending scientific knowledge with traditional wisdom, this initiative laid the foundation for a future where leopards would peacefully co-exist with local people for mutual benefits.

Celebration of International Leopard Day
07.05.2025Our group celebrated International Leopard Day of May 3, 2025 by joining the International Big Cat Alliance’s (IBCA) webinar. Dr. Igor Khorozyan has made a presentation “The Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana): building bridges through range-wide cooperation”, and its pdf file is available here.
The other presentations included:
Dr. Andrew Kittle, “Corridors for conservation: establishment of protected corridors using a collaborative multi-partner landscape approach. Central Highlands of Sri Lanka”
Dr. Erwin Wilianto,
“Repaint the spot: a collaborative action to conserve the Javan leopard”
Dr. Bilal
Habib, “Leopards in India”
Dr. Gareth Mann, “The Arabian leopard: darkness before the dawn?”

Participation in training on community engagement in biodiversity conservation
23.03.2025The PeLeWG supported the
participation of its member, Kaveh Hobeali from Future4Leopards Foundation
(Iran), in the workshop “Engaging with Indigenous People and Local Communities
for Biodiversity Conservation” in Kathmandu, Nepal during 5-8 March 2025. This
course was organized by Snow Leopard Trust, Ethical Conservation Alliance and
Red Panda Network. It was arranged in a very creative and participatory way to
address the PARTNERS principles including the following key features of
effective cooperation with local communities in conservation: Presence,
Aptness, Respect, Transparency, Negotiation, Empathy, Responsiveness and
Strategic support. Witnessing the remarkable unity among snow leopard
conservationists was truly thought-provoking, and inspired Kaveh to reflect and
apply meaningful, feasible and locally friendly solutions in his home country.
As human conflicts with Persian leopards and snow leopards are among the major threats to survival of these big cats, learning and sharing information about effective solutions with essential local engagement is an irreplaceable lesson to take home. The PeLeWG pays great attention to building up local knowledge on co-existence between local communities and Persian leopards, and will do its best to foster dedicated professionals, especially youth, to make a change on the ground.