Now here’s a great idea! Using Google maps to identify the location of news stories about snow leopards in China. Juan Li, a young Ph.D. student  has created this Google map of snow leopards reported during the 20 year period of 1990-2009 by searching the Google News Archive.

She says”  I am a Ph.D candidate of conservation biology, in Center for Nature and Society, Peking university. And my supervisor is Lu Zhi.

I did this map, just because I wanted to know more about snow leopard in China. And Google Alerts is a simple and easy way to collect the information. But Google Alerts did not provide the auto-link to the Google map. So I have to map the news manually. And I will keep this map updated.

I don’t mind you put it on your website, which is a really great website for snow leopard. Thank you. All the best wishes!”

Thanks to you Juan Li, this is a very clever idea and it’s good for researchers and people interested in snow leopard conservation in China that you’ve committed to updating it. We’ll publish it on a regular basis.

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Good to see Chinese authorities clamping down on the illegal snow leopard parts trade.

A news story this week reports Chinese police arrested two Mongolian citizens after finding two snow leopard skins and a snow leopard skull hidden inside their jeep at a border checkpoint, state media said Tuesday.Police in the remote Alxa League of north China’s Inner Mongolia region spent 10 hours searching the vehicle that had more than 40 hidden compartments, the official Xinhua news agency reported.The smuggled skins and skull had an estimated value of more than 200,000 yuan (29,000 dollars) on the black market, the agency quoted Zhao Jun, an anti-smuggling officer from the regional capital, as saying.

Experts say snow leopard skins from Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan are often smuggled across the borders to be sold in China or abroad.

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The MoU will be signed this week in the Chinese capital Beijing. 

Dr Siddhartha Bajracharya, National Trust for Nature Conservation (NTNC)
executive officer, said the signing of MoU will help identify the
priority areas of cooperation on issues like biodiversity conservation
and curbing illegal wildlife trade.

Chinese market is highly regarded for trade of wild body parts,
especially tiger. Police had seized huge consignments of red sandalwood
bound to China from India in the past.

“The signing of MoU will enable the authorities of both the countries to
plan and discuss trans-boundary issues on wildlife conservation and
wildlife trade,” said Bajracharya. 

The Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation (DNPWC) and
Department of Forests (DOF) from Nepal and the Department of
International Cooperation of the State Forestry Administration of China
are the implementing bodies of the agreement.

Minister of Forests and Soil Conservation Deepak Bohara said regular
meetings would be held between the two country’s officials to curb
rampant wildlife parts trade after the signing of the MoU.

The two countries will sign the MoU this week in Chinese capital
Beijing.

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline

India wants to agree on a pact with China to protect its fast dwindling tiger population from extinction, as part of an attempt to capitalise on the goodwill created between the neighbours in their alliance during recent climate change talks.

Closer co-operation between the two countries is seen by some tiger conservationists as key to preserving India’s few remaining big cats. A trans-Himalayan agreement to calibrate national strategies would be the first of its kind. India has an estimated 1,400 tigers in the wild.

Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, said tiger conservation was part of a proposed bilateral agenda on environment and natural resources that included sharing information and expertise on Himalayan glaciers and regional water resources. He said a “special relationship” forged at the United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen last year was ready to address a wider agenda.

“I would like to work very closely with the Chinese on tiger conservation. China is one of the reasons our tiger population is being decimated,” he told the Financial Times.

The killing of tigers is a source of friction between India and China. Indian officials and conservationists say an illegal trade in tiger parts used for medicine encourages poaching. Last year, about 60 tigers were killed in India. Many fell victim to traffickers that operate between India, Nepal and China.

However, Mr Ramesh’s overtures to Beijing reflect India’s ambivalent relationship with its wealthier neighbour. New Delhi recognises the need for closer co-operation on issues such as the environment. Yet India’s security apparatus remains suspicious of Chinese intentions, reflected in India’s informal ban on telecommunications equipment made by China’s Huawei.

Mr Ramesh came under fire in New Delhi on Tuesday for comments made on a trip to China last week, when he called Indian security officials “alarmist” and “paranoid” in their attitude towards Beijing. The Bharatiya Janata party said it would seek Mr Ramesh’s resignation, and the minister has also been scolded by Manmohan Singh, prime minister, for his intemperate criticism of other Indian government ministries.

Mr Ramesh, who has visited China four times since he took up office last year, has built up a close relationship with Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate official. He has also been encouraged by China’s preparedness to break new ground with a neighbour it fought a war against in 1962, particularly in the sensitive area of south Asian river systems.

“For the first time, the Chinese shared information on what they are doing on the Brahmaputra river. They’ve never done this before. They are building a 500MW run of the river power station,” said Mr Ramesh. “The Chinese had been very cagey. We don’t have a treaty on the Brahmaputra.”

Mr Ramesh’s ministry stumbled into controversy earlier this month when a top bureaucrat suggested India would consider a ban on tiger tourism to protect the dwindling numbers. Mr Ramesh denied that such draconian measures were under consideration, but that the government sought to lessen the impact of tourism on the creatures’ habitats.

“We are talking of regulating tourism. We are talking about bringing in eco tourism. No one is talking about closing tourism,” he said. “Tourism is the lifeblood of the local community.”

However he warned that uncontrolled resort developments at the world famous Corbett tiger reserve had become a “hazard”.

The Corbett national park has a “buffer zone” around its perimeter where commercial activity is banned. But weak implementation of restrictions has allowed their flouting.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d2c1fdac-5d50-11df-8373-00144feab49a,s01