Bayarjargal Agvaantseren has spent 20 years traveling to remote regions of Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, fighting to protect native snow leopards. The 50-year-old teacher-turned-activist persuaded Mongolia’s parliament in 2016 to create the world’s first national reserve specifically for the endangered animal. It links two existing protected areas to create a continuous safe zone for the species covering 31,000 square miles, where over a third of the country’s estimated 1,000 snow leopards live.
The creation of the reserve led to the banning of all mining in one of the animal’s key habitats. In a country so dependent on extractive industries — coal and minerals make up 85 percent of exports — her achievement is astounding. She attributes it to the support of remote goat-herding communities, people who she converted from regarding leopards as their enemies to patroling the reserve to protect them.
In April, Bayara’s work saving the snow leopards of Mongolia won her the Goldman Environment Prize, an annual award that honors grassroots environmental activists from six continents. In an interview with Yale Environment 360, Bayara talks about how she convinced indigenous communities to work with her, the major threats still facing snow leopards, and how after two decades working on their protection, she has yet to see the elusive mountain animal in the wild.
Yale Environment 360: How did your love affair with snow leopards start?
Read more at: Yale Environment 360
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