The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Pakistan has come out strongly against a controversial proposal to relocate endangered snow leopards from the country’s northern mountains to the Moscow Zoo, calling instead for greater investment in local rehabilitation and conservation.

In a statement released Saturday, WWF-Pakistan confirmed it had formally objected to the Ministry of Climate Change’s plan to transfer two snow leopards from the Naltar Rescue and Rehabilitation Center in Gilgit-Baltistan to Russia. The organization warned that such a move would violate both national and international conservation laws, and could set a dangerous precedent for the future export of endangered species.

Snow leopards, listed as “vulnerable” on the IUCN Red List, are notoriously elusive, making population estimates difficult. According to a 2020 WWF report, fewer than 7,000 snow leopards remain worldwide, with only 200 to 420 believed to inhabit Pakistan’s rugged regions of Gilgit-Baltistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

WWF-Pakistan stressed that the proposed transfer would breach Pakistan’s wildlife protection laws and international agreements, including Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which strictly prohibits international trade in endangered species except under exceptional, non-commercial circumstances.

“There is no valid conservation justification for relocating these animals to Russia, which already has a larger wild population of snow leopards,” the organization said, urging the government to cancel the plan and instead demonstrate its commitment to protecting Pakistan’s unique wildlife heritage.

WWF-Pakistan also raised concerns about the lack of oversight.