COLOMBO, Aug. 20 -- A groundbreaking Livestock Insurance Scheme was launched on Tuesday (19) to mitigate human-wildlife conflict and protect the endangered Sri Lankan Leopard (Panthera pardus kotiya), the Sri Lanka's apex predator.

The initiative, the first of its kind in the country, was introduced by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Sri Lanka through its Biodiversity Finance Initiative (BIOFIN), in partnership with the Wildlife and Nature Protection Society (WNPS), LOLC, and the Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC).

The scheme provides rapid monetary compensation to farmers who lose livestock to leopard attacks, aiming to reduce retaliatory killings of the species while safeguarding rural livelihoods.

"This progr...