Our Projects
Collaborative snow leopard research and conservation
The snow leopard (Panthera uncia) is assessed as Vulnerable in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. It is categorized as Endangered in the National Red List of Nepal and legally protected under the National Park and Wildlife Conservation Act 1973 of the Government of Nepal, as a priority species for conservation. Despite Nepal’s continuous conservation effort, its long-term viability is threatened by human-snow leopard conflict over livestock depredation, retaliatory killings, prey base decline, habitat fragmentation and loss, climate change and human induced disturbances.
Our snow leopard research and conservation project focuses on two major regions of Nepal; the upper Karnali region {Humla district) and the Annapurna region (Annapurna Conservation Area) which covers about one-third of Nepal’s snow leopard habitat. Our work mostly focuses on snow leopard and its prey status survey, habitat monitoring, human-snow leopard conflict assessment and mitigation support, capacity building training to locals, conservation education and awareness program, and income generation microenterprise development.
Promoting local initiatives for biodiversity conservation in Nepal's trans-Himalaya
The trans-Himalayan region of Nepal is rich in biodiversity and provides an important basis for rural livelihood, particularly to the indigenous and marginalized communities. The northwestern trans-Himalayan region includes the Humla district is the most remote, and the least developed area in Nepal. In Humla agriculture is subsistence and supported by livestock husbandry of cow, horse, hybrids, yaks, mules, goat, and sheep, where only 1 % of the total land is suitable for farming. As a result, the local populations are highly dependent on biodiversity for livelihood and income generation. Local’s excessive dependence on natural resources, deforestation and forest fire, illegal hunting, human-wildlife conflict, habitat loss, and fragmentation are documented threats to biodiversity conservation. In addition, infrastructure development in important wildlife habitats and climate change is expected to have a more severe impact on biodiversity particularly the forest and large mammals which calls the need for urgent conservation actions.
Nepal Pallas's cat project
Nepal Pallas’s Cat Project (NPCP) is one of the longest conservation project of Third Pole Conservancy (TPC). This project was initiated in 2013 by the TPC’s biologists Tashi R. Ghale, Rinzin Phunjok Lama and Ganga Ram Regmi. The project does research and conservation of Pallas’s cat in Nepal Himalaya. The major activities of project are: camera-trapping survey and monitoring, school and community outreach programs, trainings and mitigation of local threats of Pallas’s cat to ensure its long-term survival in Nepal Himalaya. The project has been supported by Small Wild Cat Conservation Foundation, Mohamed bin Zayed Species Conservation Fund, The Rufford Foundation, Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and Pallas’s Cat International Conservation Alliance (PICA).