Rebuilding the Caucasus Wildlife Refuge for Armenia's Last Leopards
by Foundation for the Preservation of Wildlife and Cultural Assets (FPWC) ยท HQ ๐ฆ๐ฒ Armenia
FPWC, founded in 2002, established the 30,000-hectare Caucasus Wildlife Refuge in 2011 by leasing land from local communities bordering Khosrov Forest State Reserve in southwest Armenia. Camera traps have documented more than seven individual Caucasian leopards using the refuge since 2013, part of a subspecies with only an estimated 8-13 individuals left in the country, alongside Armenian mouflon, Syrian brown bear and around 180 recorded bird species. The foundation runs a tree nursery and reforestation programme to restore degraded habitat within the refuge, and its SunChild Eco-club network has delivered environmental education to roughly 2,000 young people since 2006.