The Snow Leopard, one of the world's rarest cats inhabits the Northern regions of Nepal. Within Nepal the Annapurna Conservation Area (ACA) has one of the highest population densities of Snow Leopards. Through its policies of grassroots management and community participation, the Conservation project has been successful in conserving wildlife and its habitat whilst promoting human development and managing tourism. However the Snow Leopard population is under constant threat from livestock owners who view the animal as a threat to their stock and persecute it in retribution for livestock losses. Livestock rearing in the region is a vital activity for the community's sustenance in the extreme conditions that they live. In consultations with community groups, it has been established that if existing rules and regulations are to be observed a system of loss compensation needs to be developed. Similar schemes have been tried worldwide, but have often failed due to excessive claims, or a lack of long-term sustainability once funding ends. We propose a community owned insurance scheme stemmed from a community based Saving and Credit Group, with funds from this group going directly to livestock insurance scheme. The introduction of Saving and Credit schemes will facilitate the establishment of a community owned and managed financial delivery mechanism for the benefit of the locals in the region, while the introduction of a locally managed insurance scheme should take the risk away from livestock depredation and avoid many of the problems larger schemes have faced, such as fraudulent claims. Initially this may be a pilot project in the Nyeshang Valley of Manang; however if successful the scheme may be replicated across other areas of the ACA and outside it, affected by livestock-wildlife conflict of similar nature.
