Save the Few Amur Leopards Today

In 1996, the Amur Leopard was declared critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Currently, 2018, there are a total of about 84 individual Amur Leopards left. The Amur Leopard, also known as the Far East Leopard or Manchurian Leopard, is an extraordinary and beautiful animal that inhabits the temperate forests in the southwest of Primorsky Province. With sophisticated hunting skills and with the ability to preserve its food from other predators, the Amur Leopard lives up to a total of ten to fifteen years. Over the past decade, the practice of poaching has placed the Amur Leopard in great danger. Legislators in Russia have attempted to resolve the problem by implementing laws and creating a national park to preserve this beautiful animal. Unfortunately, the practice of poaching by locals within the area of the Leopard National Park has made it impossible for the laws to become effective. It should be the Russian authorities’ responsibility to send a regime or extra law enforcement to the Leopard National Park to protect the critically endangered Amur Leopards. By sending extra law enforcement or police officers to the national park, Russia would prevent poachers within the area from hunting and allow the Amur Leopard population to flourish safely.
The main cause for the low population of the Amur Leopard is hunting. The Amur Leopards have been victims of the practice called poaching. Poaching, the illegal action of hunting or catching of animals has not enabled the Amur Leopard population to flourish. According to the Russian CEO, Igor Chestin, from the World Wildlife Fund, “In the past 20 years, Far Eastern leopard habitat has almost halved, and the population has become critically low and numbers just 30 animals.” In this case, the cause for such a low population deals with the fact that most of the poaching takes place in and around the Land of the Leopard National Park. This national park was created by Russian authorities, along Russia’s far southeastern border with China, with efforts to protect the Amur Leopards. Unfortunately, there are people in this world who choose to ignore these sanctuary places. Carlos Massimo(2015) from Newsweek reported, “Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources found that in 2012, poachers made off with 18 billion rubles’ worth of game, 2 billion more than the legal harvest.” For having such a beautiful, spotted fur, the Amur Leopards are killed and skinned for the simple pleasure of obtaining money. The illegal practice of hunting in Russia is responsible for the low population of the Amur Leopard.
In efforts to preserve the Amur Leopard population, the government in Russia has strengthened the penalty for poaching in the country but little effect has shown since then. The problem is simply that these specific laws themselves are not being enforced. When a certain bill or law is approved, the immediate effective is not present until the specific law is enforced. In 2012, TRAFFIC and WWF took part in creating a law in Russia that increased the financial penalty for anyone who was caught poaching. Thus, making it a total of seven years in prison and a thirty five thousand dollars fine for anyone convicted of the crime. After the implementation of the law, the numbers for Amur Leopards continue to be very low. Meaning, the law itself did not help preserve the Amur Leopard population because there weren’t enough authorities present within the national park to actually catch and convict the poachers. According to Igor Chestin, previously cited, “'Creation of the national park implied a lot of organizational problems, and only active and fruitful cooperation of Primorsky Province government, Ministry of natural resources and environment of the Russian Federation, and other state agencies helped implement Prime Minister’s order in such short time.” Only a few organizations with interest in helping the Amur Leopard contributed to the cause. Little efforts were made to help the Amur Leopard population.
The Russian government needs to start taking extreme measures in order to save the Amur Leopards. Sergei B. Ivanov, Special Presidential Representative on Issues of Environmental Compliance, Ecology, and Transportation, should be encouraged to deploy a large number of troops to the Leopard National Park. With a large presence of policemen patrolling the area, those who hunt and kill leopards may diminish. With the support of those who care for the Amur Leopards, action can be taken in order to protect and insure that the Amur Leopard population continues to prosper in the upcoming years. By signing this petition you’ll let Sergei Ivanov know that you want strict laws and a large number of authorities at the National Leopard Park in order to capture the poachers and preserve the Amur Leopard population. Signing this is a simply call to action urging the government in Russia to step it up.