KATHMANDU — Rodney Jackson pioneered the radio-tracking study of snow leopards in Nepal’s Langu Valley in the early 1980s and has, since then, worked across the species’ range from Ladakh to Mongolia to the Pakistani Karakoram ranges. In 1981, he founded the nonprofit Snow Leopard Conservancy (SLC), which focuses on community-based conservation approaches in high mountain landscapes of Asia. Jackson, who holds a doctorate from the University of London, was featured on the cover of National Geographic in 1986 and remains one of the most cited researchers in snow leopard (Panthera uncia) science. After retiring in 2022, Jackson serves as the president of the conservancy’s board of directors, where he works in refining strategic approach and impact, mentoring the next generation of conservationists, and special projects. Jackson spoke with Mongabay — the third time, following interviews in 2008 and 2015 — on the sidelines of Society of Conservation Biologists Congress in Kathmandu, Nepal. Talking to Mongabay’s Abhaya Raj Joshi, Jackson discusses the state of population monitoring technology, the persistent challenge of human-wildlife conflict in mountain communities, and what he describes as a long-standing failure to center the needs of herding families who bear the direct costs of living alongside the species. He also reflects on the lack of collaboration between the two main international snow leopard organizations, and on what he sees as the field’s continued overinvestment in science at the expense of practical community support. Rodney Jackson holds a snow leopard cub, with Snow Leopard Conservancy co-founder Darla Hillard.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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