Minister of State for Environment Malik Amin Aslam Khan on Thursday said that endangered specie of snow leopard be considered as an asset and efforts should be made to save it from extinction.
Addressing a steering committee meeting of a non-governmental organisation Snow Leopard Network (SLN), he said Pakistan was becoming a leading country in conservation of the specie of snow leopard. The Minister said the government was making all out efforts to evolve a concrete mechanism to save endangering species of rare birds and animals.
He said the SLN had executed some laudable plans to remove the root causes, which were threatening the existence of snow leopard all over the world. Snow Leopard Conservation Director Dr Rodney Jackson said it was quite difficult to properly implement ban on the hunting of snow leopard in remote areas.
He said poorly constructed livestock pens and ineffective compensation programmes caused a severe dent to the efforts to save the specie of snow leopard.
Dr Jackson said religious leaders could influence the local people to avoid hunting of rare species to get financial benefits. He said now the efforts to save wild creatures were mainly based on four Ds, which included discover, dream, design and deliver.
SLN steering committee member and a researcher Dr Javed Khan said the SLN had initiated few more steps to stop retaliatory killing and poaching of snow leopards in remote areas of the country. He said the fresh initiatives which yielded encouraging results included improved animal husbandry programme, information management system and ecosystem awareness plan.
Dr Javed said area measuring 81,000 sq km had a potential habitat for snow leopard in the country. He said funding for protection of snow leopard was less as compared to magnitude of the problem.
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