
Collectively, ALTA members have developed a comprehensive conservation programme for the Amur leopard’s range in Russia and NE China that includes:
ALTA members are not alone in their work for Amur leopard conservation – the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) is also a major contributor. Read more
Our main anti-poaching team has been operating in the Amur leopard's range since 1998 and was the first conservation project for Amur leopards financed by NGOs. The team has been very successful and poaching has been much reduced, but we have to remain vigilant and continue our efforts.
Fires reduce forest habitat, replacing it with grasslands that Amur leopards avoid. ALTA will repair the firebreak system around the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve "Kedrovaya Pad", and we will provide equipment that will increase the reserve's capacity to fight fires.
ALTA implements a large number of educational projects and has been very successful in increasing conservation awareness among local villagers.
Annual monitoring of the Amur leopard population provides us with critical information on population size, density and trends over time, distribution and movement of individual leopards, and rates of population turnover. Monitoring results indicate that a small but stable population of around 30 individuals remains in Russia.
In order to realize plans to conserve and recover leopards in Russia and China, and to successfully establish a second wild leopard population, we need to learn much more about how leopards live in the wild, including how to increase their survival rates, whether inbreeding is a health risk, and how leopards interact with tigers.
There is great potential to increase the leopard population across the border in Northeast China, where efforts are underway to support the Hunchun Tiger Leopard Reserve, improve anti-poaching, increase local capacity to monitor leopards, and implement education programs.