A rehabilitation center for snow leopards is being built in the territory of the Jamantal zone in Murgab district of the Gorno Badakhshan Autonomous Region (GBAO).

The press center of the Committee for Environmental Protection under the Government of Tajikistan says an area of 10 hectares has been allocated for construction of this rehab center.

The construction work began in September this year and the builders have completed 20% of the construction work to date. 

The rehab center for snow leopard in Murgab district will consists of a sanitary point, a quarantine zone and a watch tower for tourists.  

Recall, a conference entitled “Snow Leopard Conservation through Effective Habitat Management” took place in Dushanbe on October 29-31, 2019.

Hosted by the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH), the event brought together over fifty snow leopard experts, scientists, government and non-government organizations

The conference was organized in close partnership with UNDP’s Global Environmental Facility (GEF) Project and enabled the participants to be provided with updates on organizations’ activities in the area of snow leopard protection and get involved in the development of action plan for the snow leopard conservation in Tajikistan.

Major topics included protection efforts, latest achievements and conservation initiatives of the snow leopard species by environmental organizations, conservationists, and related agencies.

Following the presentations, participants conducted a series of discussions on snow leopard protection, including studies on the ways and methods of reducing human-wildlife conflict, methods of facilitating long-term conservation plans in snow leopard range countries and scientific research methods on protection and conservation of this valuable species and its habitat.

According to the World Wild Fund for Nature, there are about 4,000 snow leopards left in the world and the numbers are declining due to poaching, habitat loss and climate change.

In Tajikistan, the total habitat area for snow leopards is about 85,700 km, which represents 60% of the total territory of the country.  According to local experts, Tajikistan now contains around 250-400 snow leopards primarily within the Pamir Mountain range.