Kathmandu: Nepali conservationist Rinzin Phunjok Lama, listed in Time’s NEXT GENERATION LEADERS.
Earlier Rinzin Phunjok Lama has been selected as one of the winners of Rolex award for his conservation work in Humla related to wild yaks, Snow leopards etc. Lama is also the awardee of the Wildlife Conservation Network Scholarship in 2015 and the WWF Nepal Conservation Award in 2020. He is also the head of the Conservation Programme at The Third Pole Conservancy and is active in an organisation called Mountain Spirit.
Lama works in the trans-Himalayan environment of the highlands of Namkha village in Humla. He calls himself a snow leopard biologist. He has been working since 1990 and claims to be the first local biologist to work in a high mountainous area outside the conservation area.
Lama is also the first from Humla to graduate in environmental sciences, with a BSc degree from Tribhuvan University and a master’s degree in international nature conservation from Germany and New Zealand.
After completing his BSc, in 2014, Lama started working for Global Primate Network-Nepal in Manang. He has been active in the research and conservation of snow leopards within the Annapurna Conservation Area. In 2014, his colleague, Tashi R Ghale, discovered a new breed of cat called the pallas’ cat. He says he started the work of snow leopard after he studied the cat.