Dr. Kodzue Kinoshita works at Kyoto University, in the Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies. Her love for snow leopards – studying their biology, habitat range, and life – has led her to work on their conservation.

Together with her twin sister, they enthusiastically embarked on the mission of saving snow leopards in their habitats - Mongolia and India, Nepal and then, after a familiarization visit to Kyrgyzstan, they began working there.

The story is quite intriguing because during their familiarization visit to Kyrgyzstan, one of the sisters visited the OVOP store and struck up a conversation with a Japanese consultant of the OVOP project. A casual conversation turned into a long-term partnership!

Now the OVOP store manufactures felt toys of snow leopards based on designs specially developed in Japan. These felt toys are exported to Japan, where they are sold in zoos that house 18 snow leopards. OVOP receives several orders per year for batches of 8000 pieces each, and 3% of the sales of snow leopard toys go towards snow leopard conservation!

The funds are transferred to the local Snow Leopard Foundation, with which the sisters have been collaborating since the beginning of their activities in Kyrgyzstan.

This story illustrates how a chance encounter can turn into fruitful cooperation and real assistance in the conservation of endangered animals!

Each of us can contribute to the research and education for the conservation of the snow leopard by purchasing OVOP products such as felt toys, slippers, and other goods!

JICA Kyrgyz Republic on Facebook