Focus Area
Environmental Conservation
Location
Central Asia
Beneficiaries
Rural communities living within snow leopard habitats and snow leopards themselves
Safavi's Role
Partner-funded initiative
Key Impact
Implementation of the PARTNERS Principles across multiple conservation zones, supporting community-led interventions, education, and long-term coexistence strategies benefitting both people and wildlife
Project Overview
The Snow Leopard Trust Conservation Initiative supports sustainable, community-led efforts to protect endangered snow leopards across Central Asia. This initiative addresses the urgent need to preserve fragile ecosystems while fostering positive, long-term relationships with local populations who share these habitats. Safavi’s partnership enables the ongoing implementation of the PARTNERS Principles—a field-tested framework for effective community-based conservation that honors both ecological and human complexity.
Beneficiary Profile
The primary beneficiaries of this initiative are the rural and Indigenous communities living in remote, mountainous regions of Central Asia—areas that overlap critical snow leopard habitats. These communities often depend on livestock and agriculture for survival and are directly affected by conservation policies. Through education, economic alternatives, and collaborative management, the initiative ensures both human livelihoods and biodiversity thrive together. Snow leopards, as apex predators, also benefit from reduced human-wildlife conflict and habitat preservation.
Safavi's Role
Safavi provides direct funding to the Snow Leopard Trust, supporting the rollout of the PARTNERS Principles across its regional conservation programs. This includes enabling strategic field presence, community engagement, and long-term trust-building initiatives. While Safavi is not directly managing the programs, it plays a critical role in sustaining the initiative's scalability by funding operational costs, educational efforts, and capacity building. Collaboration with trusted, science-led NGOs allows Safavi to contribute meaningfully while respecting the local context and expertise on the ground.
Project Gallery
Photo Credit: Partner Principles
Impact Achieved
The initiative has helped establish community-based conservation agreements that link wildlife protection to local benefits, such as livestock insurance, education, and sustainable crafts.
Field conservationists embedded in the communities have built trust through multi-year presence and culturally relevant interventions.
Transparent processes and adaptive strategies have led to measurable reductions in retaliatory killings of snow leopards.
The PARTNERS Principles have become a global model for ethical, community-centered conservation and are now informing policy and conservation planning beyond this region.
Purpose & Signifigance
This initiative exemplifies Safavi’s belief that sustainable change begins with empowerment, empathy, and long-term partnership. Environmental conservation efforts often falter when they overlook the needs and wisdom of the people living closest to nature. By supporting the Snow Leopard Trust, Safavi advances a model of conservation that prioritizes dignity, transparency, and local leadership, principles deeply aligned with Safavi’s core values of respect, sustainability, and lasting impact.
The PARTNERS Principles
P — Presence
Relationship-building through sustained, long-term presence of conservationists within the local community.
A — Aptness
Interventions should be tailored to the key threats to biodiversity, grounded in science, and aligned with local culture, economics, and available social capital.
R — Respect
Communities are approached with dignity, and interactions are guided by beneficence and non-maleficence.
T — Transparency
Clear, honest communication about goals, expectations, and equitable distribution of program benefits.
N — Negotiation
Formal agreements and shared conservation goals drive integrative negotiation with local communities.
E — Empathy
Programs are shaped by deeply understanding the community’s perspective, constraints, and lived experience.
R — Responsiveness
Flexibility and creativity guide program adaptation as challenges and opportunities emerge.
S — Support
Strengthening conservation efforts through partnerships with governments in planning, policy, and implementation.
Future Outlook
Safavi intends to continue funding this partnership as it expands to new territories and deepens its engagement with policymakers. Future goals include scaling the PARTNERS Principles to additional biodiversity hotspots, increasing scientific research capacity, and empowering more local women and youth to lead in conservation efforts.
