Protecting Snow Leopards

" Summer is one of our favourite times of the year" writes Siri Okomoto, Snow Leopard Trust 'because that is when we get to take children into the mountains for eco-camps. 

David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation and Snow Leopard Trust are great believers in opening up the natural world to children and awakening their conservation awareness and leadership skills. Through these eco-camps, children gain improved attitudes towards wildlife and become conservation messengers within their own communities. 

This July, we held two sessions of eco-camps in Mongolia's South Gobi Province. A total of 40 children, ages 10-14, were able to attend as well as their teachers. All children come from nomadic families and the eco-camps are a special experience where they can relax, explore and discover the natural world and local wildlife through a new lens. 

At eco-camps, nobody sits still. Through movement, role-play, drawing, writing and many other activities, children learned about the lives of Snow Leopards, ways we can protect them, how the food chain works, adaptations of local plants and animals and climate change. This year we also challenged children to consider how they would protect and wisely use rangelands for the good of wildlife and livestock. 

At the end of the camps, we surveyed children to hear about their learning and perceptions. Children expressed their belief that "All living things deserve to live and need help in order to do so." They gained an understanding of the "importance of snow leopards and their roles," and said they would take home messages and share what they had learned with their families and their friends to help the cycle of conservation awareness. 

Links:

• To learn more about our Snow Leopard work