“Before, I worried about having no money.  Now I worry about how we can stop poachers.” - Eliza Abdralieva, program participant in Kyrgyzstan (read her story)

In 1980, a Russian study estimated that the Kyrgyz Republic had one of the densest snow leopard populations in the world. Today, only 150-200 snow leopards remain there, and the Snow Leopard Trust has been working hard to make sure that they do not go extinct in the country.

In 2002, The Snow Leopard Trust partnered with the Community and Business Forum, a Kyrgyz NGO, to bring Snow Leopard Enterprises to the village of Ak-Shyirak. Ak-Shyirak is a former Soviet tin-mining town near the Sarychat-Ertash Wildlife Reserve, a remote park that was established to protect snow leopards and their mountain ecosystem.  Located high in the Tien Shan Mountains, Ak-Shyirak is 200 km from the nearest village, and is cut off from the outside world by harsh mountain snows for half the year. When the tin mine closed down, many of the villagers turned to raising livestock, and were forced to kill snow leopards to protect their herds.

Currently, about half of Ak-Shyirak's households participate in Snow Leopard Enterprises. As a result of our mutual efforts, residents of Ak-Shyirak can live in peace with snow leopards without sacrificing their livelihood.

Inilchek (or Engilchek), a remote village on the Sarychat-Ertash Reserve's southern border, joined the program in 2004. The village is small, with only 23 households. Eight women participated the first year. Since that time, the program has grown to achieve enormous successes – household incomes in Inilchek have increased by more than 50%, and the poaching of snow leopards in the Sarychat-Ertash Wildlife Reserve has halted.

In 2007, The Snow Leopard Trust began partnering with Bashat, another local NGO, to bring Snow Leopard Enterprises to Eki Naryn and Tash Bashat – two communities near the Naryn State Reserve, an important snow leopard habitat southeast of Bishkek.  Because of our success in Ak-Shyirak and Inilchek, we are optimistic that Eki Naryn and Tash Bashat will be successes as well. 

• View slide show of women making felt from wool

Learn about Snow Leopard Enterprises in:

• Mongolia
  
• Pakistan