Program on the Environment

Community-based conservation (CBC) is based on the idea that if conservation and development can be simultaneously achieved, then the interests of both groups can be better served. The Snow Leopard Trust implements community-based conservation to offset the economic losses to herding communities in Central Asia imposed by snow leopards. Snow Leopard Enterprises (SLE) is a project that enables women in impacted herding communities to make and sell handicrafts in order to provide an alternative income and to reduce the retaliatory killing of snow leopards, while promoting female empowerment and environmental justice principles. Through my internship with the Snow Leopard Trust, I developed an informative analysis of the creation and progression of SLE to educate other conservation organizations that wish to develop similar programs. This project will hopefully result in increased awareness of community-based conservation, creating the incentive for more programs in which humans and wildlife are regarded equally as part of the environment.