Ministerial level meeting of snow leopard possessing nations to take place in Nepal

Kathmandu / Jan 11: The ministerial-level meeting of the countries home to the endangered snow leopard is taking place in Nepal on January 17-20 to share global efforts on preserving the snow beast and set its future actions.

The second high-level steering committee meeting accompanied by a conference ‘Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Programme (GSLEP)’ is scheduled to be held in Nepal, confirmed the Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation.

Globally snow leopard is available in Nepal along with Afghanistan, Bhutan, China, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, India, Mongolia, Russia, Pakistan and Uzbekistan.

At a press conference organized at the Ministry on Wednesday to share information on the conference, Ministry Joint Secretary Dr Maheswor Dhakal shared that the participation from the ministers and high-level delegates have been confirmed for the crucial meeting.

The meeting would touch on the several issues such as identifying resource mobilization strategy for upcoming plan, developing common ideas to fight against poaching and illegal trade of snow leopard and taking initiative on carrying out study and research on snow leopard.

Joint Secretary Dhakal expressed his confidence that the conference would help protect bio-diversity, contribute to tourism sector and boost private sector.

The main objective of the meeting is to discuss and agree on ways to retain snow leopard to its natural habitat.

Forest Ministry Secretary Krishna Poudel said the negative consequences of the climate change have adverse negative impacts in high hill region so that the protection of snow leopard would ultimately help preserve mountainous ecology.

The four-day meeting would issue the Kathmandu Declaration with concrete actions on protecting snow leopard. RSS