How this teacher defeated the mining industry and saved the snow leopard

Here is Bayarjargal Agvaantseren, the Mongolian woman who staunchly defended the habitat of the snow leopard.

He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

She persuaded her government to create an immense nature reserve in the southern Gobi desert and cancel 37 mining contracts in the area: she is Bayarjargal Agvaantseren, the 49-year-old Mongolian woman who went out of her way for years to stop mining companies. that threaten the environment of snow leopards. A commitment that earned her the 2019 Goldman Environmental Award.

The population of the big cats of southern Mongolia has in fact gradually decreased due to habitat loss and poaching, but not only: before the conservation efforts of the Agvaantseren, the snow leopards were also prey of the Mongolian farmers, who intended to protect so does your own cattle.

A struggle that began right here: after successfully implementing an insurance program for local shepherds, Bayarjargal Agvaantseren managed to "recruit" farmers on its side as allies in the defense of the big cats.

And this is how, when in 2009 he learned of the vast mining operations being launched in a sensitive area for the habitat of the snow leopard in the Southern Gobi Desert, he fought hard, until he achieved the transformation of the region into the huge nature reserve Tost Tosonbumba, still the first protected area in Mongolia created specifically for the conservation of snow leopards.

Tost Tosonbumba Nature Reserve

Not only that, Agvaantseren also managed to persuade the Mongolian government to cancel all 37 mining licenses on that precious land and to ban all future mining permits in the reserve. For these reasons and in recognition of her career, Agvaantseren won the 2019 Goldman Environmental Award for Asia.

"In a remote and uncharted corner of the world dominated by runaway mining operations, Agvaantseren has defended the protections for the remaining snow leopard population of Mongolia," the Goldman Prize website reads. Additionally, she was able to shift perceptions of snow leopards among herding communities, who now see the animal as an integral part of their identity. "

Very good Bayarjargal!

Read also:

• The wonderful snow leopard is about to go extinct
• Snow leopard: not yet extinct thanks to Tibetan monks

Germana Carillo