PAWS Summit
To take stock of progress to date and look ahead to PAWS 2022
GSLEP Updates and Way Forward
PAWS Updates at the Global Level
This presentation includes an update on progress to date- taking stock of what teams across all snow leopard range countries had achieved so far and is implications.
Wider benefits of PAWS
Koustubh Sharma highlighted that to help with the implementation of PAWS across the range countries, experts have been brought on-board by the GSLEP Program to prepare a detailed action plan, prepare guidelines, define best practices and protocols for collection and analysis of data, and develop training material and capacity modules. He also described a range of completed, on-going and future developments and tools in the pipeline.
PAWS way forward
David Borchers provided an overview presentation on how PAWS could be achieved, meeting required statistical standards and at the same time providing individual national estimates of snow leopard abundance.
PAWS Country Updates
The Mongolia (Dr. Gantulaga Bayandonoi; WWF Mongolia), India (Dr. Manvi Sharma; Nature Conservation Foundation India) and Bhutan (Tandin Tandin Department of Forests and Park Services Bhutan) country updates highlighted how PAWS is being adapted at the local level to national context. These presentations also highlighted how national teams are adopting PAWS recommendations in order to reduce biases towards favorable snow leopard habitats.
Side Events & Knowledge Kiosks
A number of additional presentations were live streamed during the PAWS Summit. In addition a virtual Knowledge Kiosk was set up on the GSLEP Steering Committee Virtual Platform to showcase some of the PAWS tools and capacity building efforts.
Digital Wildlife Talk by David Borchers
David Borchers made a thorough presentation showcasing the developments in population ecology in a digital age, specifically showcasing the confluence of mathematical statistics, computer science, technology and ecology.
An innovative paper-based DNA technology
Natalie Schmitt presented updates related to the development of a paper-based technology, that offers real-time, portable and inexpensive (~US$1 per test) detection of wildlife from small samples of genetic material. Current, conventional laboratory approaches to DNA fingerprinting are expensive, time-consuming and complex. Conventional laboratory approaches are also difficult to apply in many developing countries due to restrictions on exporting genetic material to other countries for analyses, and lack of capacity to conduct genetic analyses locally.
Sampling Bias in Snow Leopard Estimation
Munib Khanyari presents the publication entitled “Sampling bias in snow leopard population estimation studies” by Kulbhushansingh et al. 2018.
PAWS Stories & Publications
Stories from the Field
The Stories from the Field session showcased videos and photographs from different teams or individuals across the snow leopard range- with a focus on collecting data related to the PAWS effort (camera trapping, genetic surveys, field visits). The material for this section was shared by registered participants voluntarily. We received submissions from 8 individuals and organizations working across the snow leopard range.
Key Publications related to PAWS