There is approximately 6,500 km2 of snow leopard habitat in Bhutan, located in two discrete blocks that are connected via habitat in China.
Habitats are also linked to other important habitats of the eastern Himalaya via China to the west, making transboundary management a key to maintaining habitat connectivity.
Good Habitat
Fair Habitat
Key threats to snow leopards
Conservation strategies that involve people are key, since much of the core snow leopard habitat in this landscape is affected by some level of human impact.
92% of Bhutan's snow leopard habitat is within protected areas, making it the landscape in this map series with the greatest amount of habitat protected.
The 8% that is unprotected is located in the western part of the landscape, and appears to serve a vital connectivity function between the western habitats of Bhutan and the greater Eastern Himalaya mountain range with northern Bhutan.
In this map, roads, population centers, and land cover are used as proxies for human impact on snow leopards. We assume that human pressure on snow leopards is higher when closer to these landscape features.
Human impacts in snow leopard habitat are highest in the western most part of the landscape both within and outside of protected areas. There is also an area of relatively high human impact in the Lhobrak river valley in the north of the country. These potential pinchpoints may require special management attention to maintain landscape connectivity.
This map combines different analysis deemed to be of importance to the overall condition of the landscape.
Conservation importance
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Impacts
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Areas in dark blue are of high conservation importance and are threatened by high levels of climatic or human impacts. These areas should be targeted for conservation interventions.
Temperatures are expected to increase by 1.8-2.5 ºC degrees by mid-century, and precipitation is precipitation is likely to increase between 35-40% over the wettest months of the year (June to September). Since this region already receives about 180cm of rainfall per year, such significant increases in precipitation could result in a much wetter monsoon season. These changes could result in increased flooding and landslides, affecting the landscape for snow leopards and people.
* Columbia University Center for Climate Systems Research, Earth Institute. 2017. Climate Change in the Snow Leopard Landscapes of Asia's High Mountains
The snow leopard habitats in Bhutan are very vulnerable to climate change-driven ecosystem change, with a predicted loss of 60% of alpine habitats under a high emissions scenario.
Habitats in the eastern part of the country are most vulnerable to this climate change impact, while habitats in the west may remain as refugia. Habitats in the west are currently subject to higher human impacts, so special management attention may be required to preserve habitat area and maintain connectivity.
Less vulnerableMost Vulnerable
This map shows how rainfall lands acorss the Bhutan landscape. These landscapes are located entirely upstream of the so-called 'water towers'. The landscapes cover just over 25% of the entire subbasin, but only contributes to 9% of its overall runoff.
The shift in the freeze line is very linear and closely follows the temperature gradients around the different mountain ranges, which is a matter of a few hundred meters up to to some kilometers.
For the winter months, the difference will be minimal, but for the summer months these few hundred meters might severely impact the 'eternal' snowfields around the mountaintops.
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