In the rugged mountains of Central Asia, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, and Pakistani herders raise sheep in the range of the elusive snow leopard, and conflict can arise.  Snow Leopard Enterprises handicrafts provide reliable income for women whose families use sound herding practices and prevent poaching of the snow leopard.  

By helping herding families to produce and market high quality handicrafts, Snow Leopard Enterprises has enabled herders to become protectors of the rare leopard in their midst.  In return for higher income for their work, area residents limit the size of their flocks to ensure room for the snow leopard and its prey.  

Click here to buy online from the Snow Leopard Enterprises website.

	“We have different concerns now,” says Eliza Abdralieva of the Kyrgyz Republic, who makes these cotton-lined, woolen booties for the Snow Leopard Enterprises label.  “Before, I worried about having no money. Now I worry about how we can stop poachers.
	Through better livestock husbandry, the women producing these hand-felted animal ornaments in Mongolia make an important contribution to conservation and are better able afford food, medicine, and school for their children through income earned from their handicraft.
	Semi-nomadic herding families decorate the yurts (called ‘gers’, in Mongolian) in which they live with rugs felted from the wool of their sheep.  Now you can enjoy these handcrafted rugs and help the snow leopard at the same time!
	Using hand-spun cotton from local markets, women living in the Hindukush mountain range of Pakistan have adorned these napkins with beautiful embroidery.  By nurturing traditional craft, Snow Leopard Enterprises helps the families who protect the snow leopard to help themselves.
	This 100% camel wool yarn is handspun by herders in the Gobi desert, where the two-humped Bactrian camel remains an important part of the household economy.  Participants in Snow Leopard Enterprises commonly increase household income by 25-40%.