As you may know, we have been working with communities around our study site in the South Gobi to address mining issues in the area. Bayara, Director of our Mongolia programs, has been helping the communities submit an application for a People’s Protected Area. The proposal was rejected for a second time in August. This has not demoralized any of the communities in Gurvantes, who have resubmitted the application with refined boundaries and additional information provided by the ongoing research. In the second week of September, an international conference was held in Ulaan Baatar on wildlife. Bayara and Puji made presentations on snow leopard conservation, mining and snow leopard habitat use, which were well received. The presentations have instigated support from various parts of Mongolia to protect snow leopards from this recent threat of mining.