The Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio urged to support the efforts of ecologists aimed at preserving the population of snow leopards on Earth, and the leaders of some countries, including Tajikistan, take decisive actions to save this species.
The actor's call is posted on his page in Instagram and Twitter, whose subscribers are 18 million people, Radio Ozodi reports.
DiCapiro offers everyone to sign a petition that contains an appeal to the leaders of 12 countries on the eve of an international forum on the problems of preserving snow leopards. The forum will be held in Bishkek on August 23-25.
According to ecologists, at present there are only about 3 thousand snow leopards in the world, which live in the highlands of China, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Snow leopard is listed in the Red Data Book of Tajikistan. In Tajikistan and other countries in recent decades, the number of snow leopards has declined sharply due to poaching. How many individuals of the snow leopard live now in Tajikistan – it is not known. In neighboring Kyrgyzstan, according to environmentalists, there are only 250 snow leopards.
According to Tajik environmentalists, the reduction in the habitat and the lack of food in the winter make snow leopards descend to the villages in search of food. Residents of the villages of Hijez and Razuj of the Bartang Valley of GBAO said that over the past winter snow leopards had crept into their cribs and destroyed over 70 heads of small cattle. After that, the American organization "Panther", which is engaged in the conservation of endangered species of animals said, that will help to build a special crib for the inhabitants of Bartang Valley to protect livestock from attacks of snow leopards.
According to Nuzar Oshurmamadov, a researcher at the Institute of Biology of the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan and an expert from the "Panther" organization, during this time, attacks on a person from the side of the leopard were not fixed.
Tajikistan, along with 13 countries of the world, is included in the Global Initiative for the Protection of the Snow Leopard. The purpose of the program is to identify and protect the habitat of snow leopards, strict control over their habitat and organize explanatory work among the population..
Leonardo DiCaprio, having created the "Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation" in 1998, allocated more than $ 30 million to develop 70 innovative projects in the field of environmental protection in 40 countries. In January 2016, the Hollywood star at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, won the "Crystal Award" for his contribution to the protection of the environment.
