456 M. S. Farhadinia et al.


FIG. 1 The current range of the Persian Panthera pardus saxicolor, Arabian P. pardus nimr, Indochinese P. pardus delacouri and Amur P. pardus orientalis leopard subspecies in Asia, and the locations of borderlands.


persistence of their prey require further research. The prin- cipal conflicts currently affecting leopards are those between Yemen and Saudi Arabia, the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and political instabilities along the borders between northern Iraq, western Iran and Turkey, and between Afghanistan and Pakistan. In Myanmar, the long-running Karen insurgency near the border with Thailand could be negatively affecting a local leopard population (Oswell, 2010), although recent surveys conducted in Karen State found a high diversity of spe- cies, including leopards (Moo et al., 2018). Other non- government controlled areas in northern Myanmar, along the borders with Thailand, Laos, China and India, play a major role in illicit activities, including poaching and facil- itating the illegal trade of leopards and other wild felids (Oswell, 2010). Furthermore, mine-strewn borderlands oc- casionally kill leopards and other wildlife, including areas along the Thailand–Myanmar, Iran–Iraq and Armenia– Azerbaijan borders (Oswell, 2010; Avgan et al., 2016;IUCN SSC Cat Specialist Group, 2016). Illegal wildlife trade, particularly intensive and indis-


criminate snaring over large areas, is the main cause of the dramatic decline of the Indochinese leopard (Rostro- García et al., 2016, 2019). This is particularly problem- atic in borderlands because poachers may originate from a neighbouring country (O’Kelly et al., 2018) and return across the border before being apprehended. In general, weak enforcement of wildlife laws and lax border security have facilitated the illegal trade of wildlife products in South-east Asia (Oswell, 2010). Two border markets for the trafficking of exotic animals, including the Arabian


leopard, are active in Harad and Al Khoba in Yemen and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Existing and proposed infrastructure projects can have detrimental effects on leopards and other wildlife. For example, road development, which has increased in Asia, has direct negative impacts on wildlife, particularly large- bodied mammals such as leopards (Clements et al., 2014). Amongst other impacts, roads can promote illegal wildlife trade, impede animal movement, and be precursors of overhunting and habitat destruction. In Myanmar, a major source of illegal wildlife, road networks have facilitated il- legal trade of mammals to border markets (Oswell, 2010). Proposed major infrastructure projects are expected to cause fragmentation of key landscapes, such as the Dawei Special Economic Zone road in the Northern Tenassarim ForestComplex (Helsingen et al., 2015), one of the last strong- holds for the Indochinese leopard (Rostro-García et al., 2016) aswell as KopetDag ecoregion along the Iran–Turkmenistan border for the Persian leopard (Farhadinia et al., 2019). Because development projects are increasing throughout many areas of Asia, it is imperative that measures are taken to minimize the impact that such projects have on leopards and other wildlife. Border security fencing and associated roads are concerns


for transboundary movement of wildlife in many parts of Eurasia (Linnell et al., 2016). Although barbed wire is com- mon in some range country borderlands, such as parts of the Caucasus region, it is unlikely to act as a barrier for leopard movement, but more impassable border fences may impede movements of leopards and their prey along the Iran–Turkmenistan and Yemen–Oman borders (Fig. 2).


Oryx, 2021, 55(3), 452–460 © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605319000693


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150  |  Page 151  |  Page 152  |  Page 153  |  Page 154  |  Page 155  |  Page 156  |  Page 157  |  Page 158  |  Page 159  |  Page 160  |  Page 161  |  Page 162  |  Page 163  |  Page 164