Environmental anthropologist Shafqat Hussain is driven by the challenge to build and maintain a delicate balance that sustains both humans and snow leopards in Gilgit-Baltistan, north Pakistan. Using his 2006 Rolex Award for Enterprise, he developed Project Snow Leopard, which offers shepherds and herders compensation for any animal taken by the big cat and thereby reduces the likelihood of retaliatory action against the predator.
As a result, leopard numbers in the remote mountainous region are stable or recovering. Under the Perpetual Planet initiative, Rolex supports this project that is among those seeking to save endangered species.