COMPLEX EFFORTS OF ALL COUNTRIES OF REGION NECESSARY TO PRESERVE POPULATION OF CAUCASIAN LEOPARD

ARKA News Agency, Armenia
Aug 30 2007

YEREVAN, August 30. /ARKA/. To preserve the population of Caucasian
leopard complex efforts of all the countries of the region are
necessary, said Director of the Armenian branch of the World Wide Fund
(WWW-Armenia) Karen Manvelyan.

"Armenia takes great efforts to preserve the population of this
rare animal, however, the situation will not change if leopards are
preserved only in Armenia," he said and added that the leopard is
booked in the "Red book of Armenia" and "International Red book."

Manasyan noted that Armenia has already established successful
cooperation with neighboring Iran where there is a great population
of leopards, and they without hindrance migrate from Iran to Armenia
and settle in Khosrov forest reserve.

"However, it should be mentioned that the situation with the
preservation of Caucasian leopards in Armenia is getting worse, as
cases of poaching are not excluded. Despite this, the situation in
Armenia is not that bad as compared to the other countries of the
region," he said, and added that the main problem in Armenia is the
lack of public awareness about the good of the Caucasian leopard.

He said that the WWF-Armenia tries to fill in that gap by conducting
special seminars.

At present Armenia counts eight specimen of the Caucasian leopard.

The skin of the leopard costs $1ths on the black market of Armenia,
and the fine for the shooting of the animal makes AMD 3mln (a bit
less than $10ths). In case of shooting of the Caucasian leopard in
the forest reserve the fine will multiple five times.