On the Silk Road for Snow Leopard Conservation 09/09/20130 Comments Picture Photo by Mark Zekhuis, c/o SLC. Raisins, dark purple and transparent gold, the currency of the Silk Road, fill a small plate on the rough-hewn table top of our Tien Shen mountain lodge. Central Asian fruit is in season and Marco Polo might have written a chapter on the flavor alone. In the first moment the raisins feel crispy in my mouth, but quickly they dissolve into a heavenly flavor so rich they seem like dates except with a lightness as if a warm sun rolled across my tongue. It is coffee break or rather tea break on our arrival day. The Worldwide Indigenous Science Network and the Snow Leopard Conservancy have called a gathering of indigenous shamans, scientists and documentarians. Our purpose is to come up with information and a strategy to provide input on the policies forming the Global Snow Leopard Ecosystem Protection Plan, a landmark declaration to be signed by 12 governments within the Snow Leopard range at a meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, this October. To our absolute astonishment, we have succeeded in getting the United Nations process to include traditional knowledge and the participation of Snow Leopard shamans in the conservation policies.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 16:20:48 +0000
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