Doctoral Student Receives Rolex Award for Snow Leopard Conservation
Shafqat Hussain and friends in Hushe Village, Baltistan, Pakistan.
Doctoral student Shafqat Hussain has been chosen to receive a Rolex Award for his work on the conservation of the snow leopard in northern Pakistan. This prestigious award supports “exceptional men and women who are breaking new ground in areas which advance human knowledge and well-being”.
Shafqat founded project snow leopard (PSL) in 1999. In an “impressive example of lateral thinking” he developed an innovative community-based scheme that combines ecotourism with low cost insurance so that herders can seek compensation when their herds are preyed upon, rather than killing the predator snow leopard. The scheme allows herders to benefit more from one leopard alive in the bush, than several dead for the fur trade. "No matter how charistmatic an animal is, its survival should not come at the cost of poor human farmers," he says. For a full description of the the project, see The Rolex Awards for Enterprize Associate Laureates 2006.
The funding from the Rolex Award will help Shafqat extend the program to more villages. It will also help to fund better fences to protect livestock and to update the counting of leopards with automatic unmanned cameras in the key locations in the mountains. He also hopes to revive ecotourism in the area, which has flagged since the 2005 earthquake and bad publicity about Pakistan in the wake of 9/11.
Shafqat founded project snow leopard (PSL) in 1999. In an “impressive example of lateral thinking” he developed an innovative community-based scheme that combines ecotourism with low cost insurance so that herders can seek compensation when their herds are preyed upon, rather than killing the predator snow leopard. The scheme allows herders to benefit more from one leopard alive in the bush, than several dead for the fur trade. "No matter how charistmatic an animal is, its survival should not come at the cost of poor human farmers," he says. For a full description of the the project, see The Rolex Awards for Enterprize Associate Laureates 2006.
The funding from the Rolex Award will help Shafqat extend the program to more villages. It will also help to fund better fences to protect livestock and to update the counting of leopards with automatic unmanned cameras in the key locations in the mountains. He also hopes to revive ecotourism in the area, which has flagged since the 2005 earthquake and bad publicity about Pakistan in the wake of 9/11.
