Country/Region: Nepal
Partner: Himalayan Carnivore Foundation
The Himalayan wolf is an overlooked wolf lineage found in the high-altitude ecosystems of the Himalayas and the Tibetan Plateau. To date the Himalayan wolf populations have received little conservation attention and lack of information had restricted the development of targeted conservation actions. This project is the next phase in an ongoing initiative established in 2014 – ‘The Himalayan Wolves Project‘. After six years of research on Himalayan wolves and the human-wolf interactions with the local communities, the project team has developed a series of concrete activities to mitigate conflict and enhance conservation education in these remote regions of the Himalayas.
The goal of this project is to support traditional Himalayan Buddhist communities in fostering a long-term sustainable coexistence between people and wildlife living in the Himalayas of Nepal. To achieve this, the project will support communities to improve livestock safety and reduce livestock depredation by large carnivores (wolves, snow leopards and lynx). This will involve the installation of fox lights and movable electric fences, and the implementation of a livestock depredation compensation scheme. In addition, to further protect the wildlife of these high Himalayan valleys, a wildlife habitat refuge will be created and community conservation groups will be organized in each of the four target villages.