In an open letter on the occasion of World Environment Day 2022, he highlighted the impact of current conflicts, sanctions, and political tensions on the conservation of the Persian leopards, and on the very people dedicated to protecting them.

Goodall has called for actions to facilitate international cooperation beyond recent political circumstances, like the lifting of economic sanctions, plus the development of clear criteria regarding funding and technical cooperation.

The letter reads as follows:

At times of anguish and confusion, we turn to nature to quiet the mind and find healing. We hold on to the miraculous survival of wildlife and ecosystems, to persist in the face of struggles we have no control over, leaving us often drained and hopeless.

For us, one of those miracles is a beautiful feline, the Persian leopard (Panthera pardus tulliana), roaming the mountains, and cold winter deserts of Central Asia and the Middle East.

Persian leopard range spans 11 countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Russia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Tajikistan and Uzbekistan were part of the range but they are now considered extinct there.
Almost 80 percent of these leopards are found in Iran, followed by Turkmenistan. In the Caucasus, long-term conservation efforts have led to the unique recovery of a small population in the Zangezur region, including the south of Armenia and southeast of Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (Persian Leopard Working Group (2022) Range-Wide Strategy for the Conservation of the Persian Leopard Panthera pardus tulliana, draft).

Almost 80 percent of Persian leopards are found in Iran, followed by Turkmenistan. During the summer of 2021, a Persian leopard was camera trapped in Tusheti Protected Areas in Georgia after a 12-year-long absence. Shortly after, Persian leopards (not related to the reintroduction program in the Russian Caucasus) were spotted in Russian Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, and Dagestan.

In Kazakhstan, Persian leopards were re-discovered in 2018, though unfortunately, the only animal known there died in 2021.

Recently in Turkey, leopards were recorded at four different locations, some of which are dispersing male individuals from the source populations in the Lesser Caucasus. In Iraq, since its recovery in 2011, around nine dispersing males and a female have been identified in the Kurdistan region, at eight different locations. At least three leopards have been killed in the region in the last five years.

Persian leopard research and activities have ignited awareness and advocacy for these cats and the classic threats they face (poaching, loss of habitat and prey, human-wildlife conflict) but also raised awareness in the countries they inhabit and the importance of maintaining connectivity among them, and not just in the ecological sense. Some of the Persian leopard range countries face different political challenges.

In the Caucasus, between Azerbaijan and Armenia, leopards navigate a landscape of mines and tensions brought by the still ongoing Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Military operations along the Iraq-Iran and Iraq-Turkey borders continue to displace people and burn Iraq’s few surviving natural forests.

Since the advent of ISIS in 2014, political tensions and economic recession have pushed biodiversity and species conservation to the bottom of the priority list in the country, with no local funding available to support local conservation projects.

Changes in U.S. leadership in 2016 resulted in the U.S. exit from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (“the Iran nuclear deal”) and “maximum” pressure sanctions, not only hurting the people of Iran, but also indirectly hurting conservation initiatives, and some of the very people leading them.

The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) and the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) plan to organize a Range States Meeting to adopt a Regional Strategy for the Conservation of the Persian Leopard, in the framework of the Central Asian Mammals Initiative Program of Work.

Over the past year, a group of experts from across the leopard’s range led by the IUCN Special Survival Commission Cat Specialist Group co-chairs worked to develop the foundations for it. The meeting is scheduled to take place in September 2022 in Tbilisi, Georgia.

The draft strategy is very ambitious, and the success of its implementation rests very much on the recognition that nature and conservation require international cooperation and funding, as well as keeping our community of conservationists safe to do the work it takes to protect the Persian leopard.

Camera traps are also essential for monitoring wildlife: they may not have been well understood five years ago, but they have since been demonstrated to be a fantastic way of learning about elusive animals, and much research could not be possible without them.

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As a professional association with members in more than 65 countries, the International Association of Facilitators (IAF) is well placed to recognize the power of facilitation worldwide. For more than 20 years have been a strong advocate for the power of facilitation in helping organizations to address challenges and achieve results.

The FIA honors organizations that have used facilitation to achieve a measurable and positive impact.
In 2021, projects in various fields (such as health, wildlife, rural revitalization, housing policy design, performance indicators to improve service delivery, social welfare, etc.) from different companies and countries applied for this award, she explained.

Based on evaluations, projects from Iran, Canada, the United States, Russia, China, Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, India, Taiwan, the Philippines, and South Africa have been attended the competition, she noted.

The Persian leopard project from Iran was introduced as the winner of the first level award (Platinum) in terms of the effectiveness of executive methods in terms of quantity and quality and innovation in planning and designing actions with the appropriate benefit of the group process facilitation approach, according to Sane’ei.

The Persian leopard is an endangered species that can only be found in Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and the countries of the Caucasus region. And its number does not cross 1300 collars.

The largest population of the Persian leopard is estimated to be 550-850 in the mountains and forests. Unfortunately, in the past years, the species’ number has decreased dramatically and, in some areas, the species has become completely extinct. Some of the main threats to the Persian leopard are habitat destruction, illegal hunting, road accidents, human conflicts and etc.

Ever since 2007 plan for the land society has begun a project under the title of “The Persian leopard project” in some protected areas with the purpose of research and the protection of the species. This project intends to specify the possibilities of the leopard’s co-existence by doing scientific research and using the most up-to-date and accurate methods to offer a practical solution and partnership with the local community to plan long-term protection plans.

The Persian leopard project has been very active in certain areas like Bemo national park, Golestan national park, Qazvin, Hormozgan, Bushehr, And East Azarbaijan provinces.

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 A male and female leopards in captivity in the Tehran Zoological Garden mated naturally on Wednesday for the very first time. Their cubs are expected to be born in 100 days.

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