Can our leopard conservation efforts match other global conservation successes?
The Sunday Times readers may have read that the Sri Lankan leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya) is genetically distinct from its Indian counterpart. Many would have read that the Sri Lankan leopard is an apex predator. Many would have read about the threats to these leopards. Some may be aware that the Sri Lankan leopard is listed as Endangered nationally.
Annually, IUCN, International Union for Conservation of Nature publishes a global list of Threatened species. A standardised process is used to find the level of risk of a given species becoming extinct. Based on this level of risk, each species is placed into one of nine categories. Figure 1 shows these categories and how they depict an increasing risk of extinction. Among these categories, three – Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered – are considered Threatened species.
Wild and free: A dominant male leopard in Wilpattu. Pic courtesy WNPS
The Red List, as it is known, is crucial in shaping global conservation efforts — it serves as an indicator to inform us not only about the level of extinction risk for a species but also how to focus on and catalyse conservation efforts. Downlisting a species from a category of high risk to a category of lesser risk means that conservation actions have been successful.
The best-known example of such success is the exclusively bamboo-eating poster child for conservation – the giant panda – found only in the bamboo forests of China. In the early 20th century, the breakneck conversion of these forests to human-dominated land drastically reduced the habitat for giant pandas, with an associated nosedive in their populations. With efforts to increase forest cover and the establishment of more than 50 panda reserves, populations began to recover and showed a 17% increase a decade before 2017. This species was then downlisted from Endangered to Vulnerable.
Historically, the Arabian oryx was found across most of the Arabian Peninsula. In the 19th century, they were hunted by native tribes for their meat, horns and hides. The advent of the 20th century – with its mass development of automobiles and machine guns – was disastrous for oryx populations, as the stark terrain became accessible and hunting for sport and trophies increased. The oryx’s geographical range shrank precipitously until, by the 1960s, they were found only in Oman.
Figure 1. IUCN categories of extinction risk
Concerned about this, Fauna and Flora International initiated a then innovative campaign to capture animals to start a breeding population, aiming to reintroduce them back to the wild. By 1972, the last known wild herd was slain and the Arabian oryx was categorised as Extinct in the Wild. However, through the efforts of a global breeding programme, starting a decade later, oryx were reintroduced successfully into Oman, Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. In 1986, the species was downlisted from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered. The now 1,220-strong wild population is considered stable and listed as Vulnerable.
In 1947, it was reported India had about 40,000 tigers. However, after independence, hunting, poaching and large-scale land conversion destroyed and fragmented tiger habitats. By 1972, there were only about 1,827 tigers left in India. A year later, the Indian government launched Project Tiger, aimed at maintaining a viable population of tigers and preserving, for the future, habitats for these tigers. It set aside nine reserves totalling 9,115 km2. Within these, habitat destruction, habitat degradation, poaching of any species (including prey species, which contributed to food unavailability), cattle grazing and harvesting forest products were banned.
Now, there are 58 tiger reserves in 18 states, totalling 75,000 km2. Today, India’s population of tigers has more than doubled and comprises three-quarters of the world’s tiger population. However, given that in other parts of its range, populations of this species are still declining, the tiger remains Endangered.
In Sri Lanka, many dedicated scientists are working to understand the distribution, preferred habitats, food species, activity patterns and human-leopard interactions of and threats to the Sri Lankan leopard. These scientists include, but are not limited to: Andrew Kittle and Anjali Watson, Enoka Kudavidanage, Mayuri Wijesinghe and Dharshani Mahaulpatha and their respective students, as well as the Leopard Diary team and the Leopocon team. The late Ravi Samarasinghe, Jehan Kumar and Rukshan Jayawardene published a richly illustrated book on leopards, at a time when such books were scarce. Wildlife photographers – such as Kithsiri Gunawardena, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, Luxshmanan Nadaraja, Namal Kamalgoda and Sankha Wanniatchi – use their considerable skills to benefit leopard conservation.
So, can we, Sri Lankans, match our conservation efforts to other global conservation successes, knowing now that leopards are outside protected areas all over the island and that leopard killings are increasing (there have been 14 verified and nine unverified reported deaths, so far, this year)? We also know that the area of greatest concern related to human-leopard interactions is the hill country, where leopards move through areas where human population density is high.
Our leopard numbers are not so low as to warrant captive breeding and reintroduction and, in any case, for big cats, this is hugely complex, substantially costly and requires dedicated knowledge and resources. Ours is a small country, one-fiftieth the size of India and there is already, by official accounts, 28% of protected land. Current conservation thinking frowns upon the declaration of protected areas through involuntary resettlement of communities and restrictions on access to natural resources.
So, what then is the way forward for the Sri Lankan leopard?
Thanks to our researchers and the LOLC and Wildlife Nature Protection Society’s (WNPS) leopard project, scientific data on its distribution, behaviour and ecology are accruing. Most researchers, photographers and the WNPS also create targeted awareness about leopards among the public, private landowners and communities, especially estate owners and estate communities. The WNPS has, so far, reached some 3,000 tea estate workers.
Andrew Kittle and Anjali Watson have been working with private sector organisations in different parts of the island to establish connections among patches of forests, to facilitate the movement of leopards from one patch to another without crossing human habitation. WNPS’ Preserving Land and Nature (Guarantee) Ltd. (PLANT) is doing much the same but on a larger scale, with about 35 corporates and non-profit organisations already committing nearly 1,000 hectares for replanting/rewilding, to establish connectivity among habitats for our leopards.
Globally, conservation, as a science, has evolved and the focus has now shifted from locking away species in protected areas, to understanding that people are integral to any dialogue about conservation. In 2018, the global Convention on Biological Diversity described an alternative approach – Other Effective Area-based Conservation Measures (OECMs) – outside protected areas but areas that deliver a long-term conservation outcome. Kittle and Watson’s and PLANT’s efforts are doing just this.
The Global Biodiversity Framework of 2022 not only recognises OECMs as essential but also identifies the importance of the private sector in achieving its targets. Again, Sri Lanka is already doing this.
So, in my opinion, we are on the right track to conserve the Sri Lankan leopard. However, we must sustain these efforts and, if needed, rapidly increase them. I have hope.
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