Research overview: GSLEP and the snow leopard landscapes initiative

The Global Snow Leopard and Ecosystem Protection Program, GSLEP, is an intergovernmental initiative uniting the twelve snow leopard range countries around a shared conservation agenda, including a goal to secure a set of priority landscapes across the species' range. This overview surveys the program's framework, which emphasizes large, connected mountain landscapes as the units of conservation, alongside community engagement, anti-poaching, and prey protection. Researchers have examined how landscapes were selected, how national governments coordinate transboundary action, and the challenges of implementing ambitious commitments across remote, politically diverse regions. The overview frames GSLEP as the central coordinating mechanism for snow leopard conservation, comparable in ambition to the global tiger program. It matters because securing a wide-ranging high-mountain predator requires cooperation spanning many nations and vast terrain, which no single country can accomplish alone.