Sharing the Highlands with Bhutan's Snow Leopards

Snow leopards range across Bhutan's alpine Jomolhari region bordering Tibet, where a national count in 2023 found 134 individuals, a population that has grown by nearly 40% since 2016 thanks to sustained conservation. The Bhutan Foundation's Jomolhari Snow Leopard Conservation Project works with the semi-nomadic yak-herding communities of Yutoed, Yaksa and Nubri, delivering healthcare, improved livestock husbandry, education and tourism income so residents benefit directly from living alongside the predator rather than losing livestock to it. To date the programme has supplied 232 improved tents to nomadic herding families, supported 11 snow leopard festivals, and helped form three community conservation groups above the treeline.