The ninth Land of the Snow Leopard festival has come to a close in the Kosh-Agach District of the Altai Territory. This year, organisers established new categories, including Best Brain-Teaser, Best Brochure, Snow Leopard Fashion and Snow Leopard Mask. The festival received around 300 entries, including 120 drawings, 37 craft projects, 34 poems, 12 brain-teasers, 8 songs, 7 brochures and 5 video clips.

The jury selected the best works in each age group and presented awards to 30 winners and more than 70 runners-up. The winners will showcase their works at the republic-wide festival next autumn in Gorno-Altaisk. Teams from 10 educational institutions participated in the district stage of the Land of the Snow Leopard festival.

Land of the Snow Leopard was organised to raise awareness of endangered flora and fauna species. Since the beginning, the district stage alone has attracted two generations of participants, schoolchildren from Kosh-Agach and Mongolia’s Bayan-Olgii aimag (province).

The first festival took place in the Kosh-Agach District in 2010. Initiated by Ukok Nature Park, Sailyugem National Park, and the Katunsky and Altaisky biosphere reserves, the festival now has international status. Tyva and Kyrgyzstan followed the Republic of Altai’s example. In 2017, the event was held in Buryatia and Mongolia for the first time and was attended by a delegation of children from the Republic of Altai.