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Nepal’s ‘forgotten’ red pandas: poachers become protectors in campaign to save rare species
- A non-profit in Nepal is recruiting poachers and traffickers to turn them into protectors of the country’s some 1,000 red pandas
- Poaching and illegal trade are a threat to red pandas, but other risks include habitat loss from deforestation and climate change
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About a decade ago, Ramesh – not his real name – was jailed for at least a year after police arrested him for carrying a red panda pelt while travelling in eastern Nepal.
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Ramesh, then a young student, said a local from his village tricked him into transporting the pelt in exchange for about 20,000 rupees (US$150). He realised he had committed a crime only after the arrest.
“I did not know it was an endangered species,” Ramesh said.
Now Ramesh and others like him aim to share their stories with local communities as part of an initiative to raise awareness about the threatened creatures. The programme, which is being implemented by the non-profit Red Panda Network, is seeking to employ poachers and traffickers to turn them into protectors of the species.
Red pandas are little known outside their habitat, which stretches from Nepal to Bhutan, India, Myanmar and China, and there are fewer than 15,000 of them in the region. In 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classified the mammal – which is actually more closely related to skunks and raccoons than giant panda bears – as endangered due to its declining population.
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