Our Recent Newsletter

Wonderful news!

 

We’re extremely pleased to welcome Dr. Rodney Jackson as an advisor to our board!  Dr. Jackson is the world’s leading expert on wild snow leopards and their high mountain habitat.

 

Children’s Camp Exceeds Expectations!

 

More than 60 children attended our Environmental Camp this summer, almost double our usual number!  For the first time the Altai Foundation offered two sessions at their field camp on the shore of Teletsky Lake adjacent to Altaisky Zapovednik.  Children of diverse ethnic and cultural groups studied environmental themes throughout the school year, and secured spots in the camp based on their creative work and scientific knowledge.  The goal of the camp is to ensure that the next generation of Russians will understand the importance of environmental protection.

 

 

Saving Snow Leopards

 

Dr. Viktor Lukarevsky, internationally recognized for his work with Amur, Persian, and Caucasus leopards, spent the past three weeks with our anti-poaching team in the remote eastern Altai region of the Shapshal range. WWF–RU research in 1998-99 identified this area as a migration and genetic pool corridor for snow leopards. Sadly we found no signs of snow leopards and few prey species,

underscoring the critical importance of the Sailugemsky snow leopard population. Last winter’s expedition there confirmed the efficacy of our five year anti-poaching effort. Our Altai rangers found not one poacher during the expedition – a first! – and were pleased to find fresh traces of snow leopards. With an exciting grant from the Norcross Foundation, we’ve purchased trail monitoring cameras and equipment that will enable us to collect previously unattainable data on the illusive Russian snow leopard during this winter’s expedition.

 

 

Protecting Altaisky Zapovednik

 

During this past quarter, we may have achieved a new level of advocacy for conservation in Russia. The current governor of the Altai Republic, intent on making protected wilderness available to private enterprise, has often criticized the management of Altaisky Zapovednik, and proposed a change in its status from a strictly protected zapovednik to a national park, with the degree of protection to be determined by the governor. After Altaisky was thoroughly inspected by a team from the Ministry of Natural Resources in Moscow, the Deputy Minister declared that Altaisky would definitely remain protected as a zapovednik. In the Siberian press, Altaisky Director Vyacheslav Trigubovich was praised as a “radical ecologist” remarkable for his adherence to principles endeavors to uphold Russia’s environmental protection laws.

I’d like to help protect Russian wilderness and protect the snow leopard!

 

Name_________________________________________________________________________

Address_______________________________________________________________________

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Please make checks to: Altai Conservancy, Two Lincoln Corners, Woodstock, VT 05091

 

Three Immediate Needs!

 

We are currently seeking funds for the fall anti-poaching expedition that will install our trail monitoring equipment, our conservation management camp for high school and university students, and our US infra-structure.  Please, will you help?