Research overview: community livestock insurance for snow leopards in northern Pakistan

This overview reviews community-managed livestock insurance schemes for snow leopard depredation in the mountains of northern Pakistan, where herders contribute premiums to village funds that compensate verified kills, often paired with a conservation-linked component. It synthesises evidence on how local administration improves verification and trust, reduces fraud and retaliation, and ties payouts to commitments against killing predators. The literature discusses premium structures, the need for external seed capital, governance, and scaling challenges across remote valleys. The survey treats Pakistan's schemes as influential demonstrations of bottom-up insurance, contrasting their ownership and accountability with centralised government compensation that often pays too little, too late.