Why the habitat of the snow leopard deserves our attention

Protecting the habitat of the snow leopard—threatened due to the cumulative effects of climate change—is the need of this moment

Of all the animal species in our subcontinent, perhaps the most well known, most beautiful and certainly most solitary is the snow leopard. The snow leopard resides in some of the harshest landscapes across 12 countries — the mountain ranges of the Pamirs, the Himalayas, the Hindukush and the Karakoram—across Central Asia and the northern boundaries of South Asia.

Compared to the other big cats, snow leopards are known for their litheness and speed. Not massive, they average at about a metre long, and weigh up to 32kg, half of the size of the Indian tiger. They live far above the treeline where oxygen levels are low and competition is sparse, up to a staggering 18,000 feet above sea level. And of course they are fast - able to traverse vast distances quickly. A compelling example: a single snow leopard has been tracked to cover 40 kilometres in a single night.

For me, there is no more seminal emblem of the shift in our climate than the homeland of the snow leopard. Listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as a vulnerable species, there are currently less than 8,000 estimated to be left in the world; and they face intensifying threats to their survival.

And so the snow leopard became the central inspiration for Land of Giants Studio, a fine jewellery company. This creative initiative born out of two years exploring the mountains and valleys of the Himalayas, the Karakoram and the Hindukush - learning about the incredible biodiversity of the region - much of which is at risk. We work with artisans to handcraft fine jewellery inspired by the mountains of South and Central Asia - with the purpose of raising awareness and funds for conservation efforts in the Himalayas.

The name itself, “Land of Giants”, is a rough translation to “Deosai” - the traditional ancient name of a vast and protected wildlife reserve in the Himalayas which is home to endangered species including the snow leopard, brown bear, markhor, marmot, and hundreds of plant species.

Why should we care about the home of the snow leopard?

Snow leopards play a key role as both top predators and as an indicator of the health of their high-altitude habitat. If they thrive, so will countless other species.

Muhammad Ali Nawaz from the Snow Leopard Foundation in Pakistan explains that the ecological system of the Himalayas is built upon tiers of trophic levels, and the snow leopard occupies the apex. "They are a keystone species in this ecosystem. Removing tonnes of grass may not matter much but removing a dozen snow leopards will have a staggering effect.”

According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the snow leopard’s high-altitude habitat, stretching over two million square kilometres at the top of Central and South Asia, is especially susceptible to climate change. The leopards are vulnerable to the effects of the steady spread of agrarian communities taking over their land and engaging in poaching and hunting. This has impacted not only their migratory patterns but also where they find food, their longevity and whom they share their land with.

For a species that requires vast amounts of territory per individual, the reduction in habitat area will have a large impact on everything from finding prey to their way of life.

Culture and climate change

From my own perspective, the moral voices of our time are artists, designers and creatives (including creative technologists). Many of these critically-engaged creatives are focused on the climate emergency through hopeful conversations which revolve around the concept of a possible interspecies harmony. This has been a hugely emotionally resonant conversation in the cultural space.

“How will we all live together?” asked Hashim Hashim Sarkis, the curator of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021. At this same biennale, the artist and designer Anab Jain of Superflux Studio explored whether we can share a dining table with species of plants, mycelium, wildlife. And today, artist Daisy Ginsberg has created a new garden in the middle of Hyde Park in London, as part of a collaboration with the Serpentine Galleries. She worked with Google to bring artificial intelligence to illustrate the impact of bees on our shared ecosystems.

In the midst of all these ongoing conversations, we can look to indigenous cultures around the world and find that many of these questions have already been addressed and even resolved.

Conservationist Anish Andheria attributes India's successes in wildlife conservation to the country's traditional culture and belief system, “In its purest form, our shared culture should inculcate compassion in individuals for everything alive and establish the connectedness between humans and other living beings. His team at the Indian Wildlife Conservation Trust are now working on understanding how India’s cultural reverence for predators and the “other” allows people to share space with wild animals in ways which seem unthinkable in a different sociocultural context.

“India is home to 100 per cent of the world’s Asiatic lion population, 75 per cent of the global tiger and Asian elephant populations, 85 per cent of one-horned rhino populations, and more. Despite economic crises, people have not waged war against nature,” says Andheria.

The communities inhabiting the Himalayas

If we are to consider the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between ourselves and nature, we must consider the communities living in these regions who are exposed to climate change and unlikely to have any voice whatsoever in policy decisions.

One of my last projects working with Google— ‘Global Fibre Impact Explorer’—involved the creation of a new platform to help the global fashion industry measure the environmental impact of raw materials. I learned working closely with WWF Sweden that vulnerable species will always be most impacted by climate change. Baseline biodiversity indicators are intrinsically linked to effects on vulnerable human beings as well as other species. The weakest and most vulnerable populations on the earth are most exposed to climate change and unlikely to have any voice whatsoever in policy decisions.

In the northern areas of India and Pakistan, - many threats that impact snow leopards also impact the well-being of people living in these landscapes through roads, hydropower dams, mining roads, rising temperatures, resulting in flash floods, land degradation, changing snow melt, receding treelines. So if we are to consider the possibility of a symbiotic relationship between ourselves and nature, we must consider the communities living in these regions who are exposed to climate change.

Many of the pasturelands in the Himalayas are centres of high levels of biodiversity and support carbon sequestration, water storage and provide for the livelihoods of local pastoral communities. This is not a new relationship; pastoralists and animal herders have inhabited these lands for millenia; pollen records indicate signs of pastoral habitation as far back as 8,200 years! So these socio-ecological systems have evolved together. In places like the alpine rangelands of Sikkim, studies have found that traditional cattle-grazing actually helps to increase the diversity of plant species and regeneration.

The Gujjars of the Himalayas are a migrant community of goat-herders who move across mountains and valleys with changing seasons. They move from one grazing space to another, but those are running dry. The national park at Deosai in Gilgit-Baltistan—protected from all other settlement activity—gives each of the herders a licence to graze their cattle. Every year herders set out on a two-month-long journey to the world’s second highest plateau, Deosai or the Land of Giants.

At an altitude of 14,000 feet, Deosai is along the edge of where the Karakoram and Himalayan ranges meet—a temporary rooftop to the world. They navigate treacherous terrain, the endangered brown bear, wolves, jackals - as they have for centuries. But as temperatures soar, their migratory patterns are in a state of disarray. If the journey uphill on foot to Deosai remains off limits for longer than planned, the livestock is gone and herders are left without any source of income for the year. And so the goat herders are finding new jobs in the valleys and abandoning an ancient way of life.

Learn more about the snow leopard and its ecosystems through the World Wildlife Fund, and learn about Land of Giants studio (or @landofgiants.studio) to explore our fine jewelry collections and support the conservation of Himalayan Wildlife.

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