EPO’s actions to plan to save Persian leopard

The Director General of the conservation and management of hunting and fishing office in the Environment Protection Organization, Ali Teimuri, elaborated actions taken to save the Persian leopards after there were huge indiscriminate killings reported in 1394. News Online reported: 6 leopards were killed in less than 30 days from the beginning of the year while their feline generation is listed on IUCN as the animals which are becoming extinct. The leopards were destroyed almost every 4 days each due to several reasons other than natural incidents which include road accidents, food poisoning, and hunting. It was a threatening year for the endangered animal. Last year there were only 10 reports of killed leopards throughout the year.
The Director General of the conservation and management of hunting and fishing office in the Environment Protection Organization told: EPO has made plans to stop threatening the animal. Pointing out that there are about 76 endangered species among 1140 vertebrate animals species in the country based on the red list of IUCN, he said: it is necessary to promote their protecting conditions not to lose these valuable animals like the extinct Persian tiger and lion.

A plan to save and manage animal species at risk

Expressing the organization has taken actions to make a plan to manage 30 animal species with priority along with Tehran University, he said: we started making a plan since 1393 to save animal species at risk, put them on top of the agenda, and take an efficient step to promote their living conditions.
Teimuri said: the Diversity and Wildlife Office has planned to support 30 animal species and implement an action plan for 15 animal species during the current year and 6th 5-year development plan. Emphasizing there is a plan for the Persian leopard at hand, he continued: the organization has taken measures to hold educational workshops for environment experts in all environmental protection departments in 31 provinces and the local communities for the last 2 years.
Identifying priorities to prevent leopard deaths, he added: the workshop content was chosen based on different factors, needs and priorities to support various species of leopards in Iran.
He said: the experts and some interested, experienced and effective people exchanged information, learned about the key points, and led by officials from the Specialized Institute for Asian Leopard Studies they managed to make a national operational plan to save the animal. It happened with a coherent team work after a 3-year course in Bahman 1393.
Noting that the last 10 –year’s statistics show the Persian leopards were destroyed due to several factors such as hunting and food poisoning (56 %,), road accidents (13%), diseases(4%) ,Unknown reasons (2%) and the rest as a result of natural incidents like fights among animals and floods.
On 6 cases of deaths among leopards reported he said: after examinations it was found that they took place as result of the aforesaid factors and there is no way to stop it other than a comprehensive action plan to protect the Persian leopards. He added: compensation for leopards’ attacks to domestic animals is on our agenda.
He further said: compensation for the injured herds will be made after examinations by specialized legal agencies based on the reports of the provincial environmental protections departments.
Stating that the National Environment Fund has prepared a mechanism in an appropriate way to pay the compensation he said: damage by specific animal species will be made up for as soon as possible.
Provincial Environment Protection Offices involvement in Traffic and Safety Council sessions
Pointing to the losses due to the road accidents, the Director-General said: a letter was sent to the Interior Minister to ask for all-out cooperation of the members of the Provincial Environment Protection departments throughout the country in Traffic and Safety Council sessions. In a few provinces there were corporations and others are ongoing.

Identifying black spots in wildlife road mortality

Announcing that sessions on the road accidents were held along with the ministry of Road and Urban Development to identify black spots in wildlife road accidents and said: the spots were determined and handed over to the ministry to take actions to prevent losses. He added: standards to make a wildlife habitats plan to use in orienteering, evaluating development and reducing wildlife road accidents in Golestan province are being set.

Black spots in wildlife road casualties in Semnan and Yazd

Declaring that actions are being taken to install signposts and warning boards and build an overpass and underpass for wildlife to pass in Semanan and Yazd, he said: black spots were announced to the Road and Urban Ministry. He also referred to making a leopard network through specialized Persian leopard portals and said: the network was made to record coherent and accessible information about leopards and mange it. It has almost 1200 members currently. Teimuri said: statistics were carried out to show where leopards are seen, their distribution of species maps, the casualties and the reasons for losses from 1384 to Farvardin 1394.
Identifying one sensitive area which receives migrating north people to the center, south and north of the country he said: it was decided to raise compensation for the damage to the Persian leopard species from 5 million to 80 million Tomans and it will be pursued.