Snow leopards and the herding communities they share landscapes with can coexist sustainably when economic incentives and livestock protection tools are well-designed.
Snow leopard conservation cannot succeed without genuinely addressing the welfare of the herding communities who share snow leopard landscapes. When predation threatens livelihoods, retaliatory killing is a rational response to an economic problem. Conservation programmes that treat communities as obstacles rather than partners consistently fail because they ignore the legitimacy of this response. Effective coexistence programmes work by changing the economic calculus: reinforced corrals prevent predation before it occurs, insurance schemes compensate losses that do occur, and revenue-sharing from wildlife tourism creates positive returns from snow leopard presence. The welfare of snow leopards themselves is directly served by these community-centred approaches, as reduced retaliatory killing has measurable population benefits in areas where programmes are well-implemented.