The construction of a reintroduction centre which will focus on rehabilitation, breeding and protection of snow leopards will begin in Tatarstan’s Laishevo District in 2018, Minister of Natural Resources of Tatarstan Farid Abdulganiyev said during his visit to the Volzhsko-Kamsky Biosphere Reserve. The interregional centre will breed and raise snow leopard cubs and then release them into the wild.

According to the minister, the republic signed cooperation agreements with the Krasnoyarsk Territory and studied the snow leopard habitat in the Sayano-Shushensky Biosphere Reserve. Tatarstan gave the reserve 69 camera traps for counteracting poaching.

Zoologist, TV host and public figure Nikolai Drozdov, who was on a working visit to the reserve, also commented on the establishment of a snow leopard nursery: “This centre will be part of a system-wide project that includes the reserve, the snow leopard population and their feeding grounds, all of them located in different places. Tatarstan is joining the global programme to preserve these wonderful animals.”