Since the snow leopard lives at the top of the food chain, if there are abundant and healthy snow leopards in an area, the entire local ecosystem is probably healthy, too. Scientists believe there are between 4,000 and 7,000 snow leopards still in the wild, and their numbers are declining fast. The main threats to snow leopards are hunting and habitat loss . As more roads are built into wilderness areas, the snow leopards lose more and more of their habitat. Last year ECA members wrote to the head of The Home Depot, asking him to stop buying wood from trees that are cut down in ancient forests.
Ancient forests are forests that have never been logged commercially.
They are the most endangered forests on the planet. Some of the giant trees in ancient forests are over 2,000 years old. Only 20 percent of the world's ancient forests remain. One good way to protect ancient forests is for lumber stores to refuse to buy lumber from them. Letters from concerned citizens was likely the most effective mechanism that we employed to get Home Depot to change.