Horizon Scan of Transboundary Concerns Impacting Snow Leopard Landscapes in Asia

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The major problem is that the review is overall too general and covers ground covered pretty well previously. The recommendations are also too general and largely well known. 

I think a useful approach forward would be to prioritize the threats and prioritize the places and the solutions. They should drill down deeper into specifics of the solutions.

The BRI though is a huge challenge to tackle. But by drilling down and offering some more specific solutions at 4? priority places one might then envision a way through and then how to scale up.

The border fencing issue could be similarly addressed.

Author Response

On behalf of my principal author, I revised (R1) the manuscript entitled "Horizon Scan of Transboundary Concerns Impacting Snow leopard Landscapes in Asia" In the revised manuscript (R1) we addressed the reviewer’s comments. We found their comments very insightful and helpful in making this work clear. All the correction made are highlighted with GREEN COLOR. Following are our Response to the suggestions of the reviewers.

Reviewer's comments:

Reviewer #1:

 1. I think a useful approach forward would be to prioritize the threats and prioritize the places and the solutions. They should drill down deeper into specifics of the solutions.

Response: Thank you for bringing up this mistake. The threats, impacts and the solutions are now prioritize in different locations. The solutions are now revised thoroughly according to these comments.

2. The BRI though is a huge challenge to tackle. But by drilling down and offering some more specific solutions at 4? priority places one might then envision a way through and then how to scale up.

Response:  Thank you for your good comments for improving the manuscript. Specific solutions are given in the relevant sections.

3. The border fencing issue could be similarly addressed.

Response:  We appreciate the reviewer comment on this. This border fencing being an important issue is addressed and solutions are also given in the manuscript now.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper “Horizon Scan of Transboundary Concerns Impacting Snow 2 leopard Landscapes in Asia”  reviews the existing knowledge and tries to identify existing gaps while proposing sustainable mitigation options.

The sentence “This 31 paper intends to identify the pathways to mitigate the confronted vulnerabilities” in the abstract is too general and should be revised.

For an easier understanding of the paper, you should consider adding a chart with the methodological workflow of the review paper.

Please further mention How many articles / papers were reviewed and what type.

In the Conclusion and Recommendations, the authors should clearly provide the importance of such a research study and also should provide insights / comparisons of conservation perspectives from other regions (i.e. Pătru-Stupariu I. et. al.. (2020). Using social network methodological approach to better understand human–wildlife interactions. Land Use Policy 99, 105009, Popescu V.D., et. al. (2021) Trophy hunting undermines public trust. Science 372 (6546), 1049).

Figure 2 is not referenced in the text and should be better explained.

As well, table 2 is not referenced in the text.

Author Response

In the revised manuscript (R1) we addressed the reviewer’s comments. We found their comments very insightful and helpful in making this work clear. All the correction made are highlighted with GREEN COLOR. Following are our Response to the suggestions of the reviewers.

Reviewer #2:

1. The sentence “This 31 paper intends to identify the pathways to mitigate the confronted vulnerabilities” in the abstract is too general and should be revised.

Response: Thank you for your comment. The abstract is revised from general to specific form and the required correction is completed.

2. For an easier understanding of the paper, you should consider adding a chart with the methodological workflow of the review paper.

   Response: Thank you for guiding us to improve the paper. The required correction is done in the revised version. The methodological workflow (Figure 2) is added to the review paper.

3. Please further mention How many articles / papers were reviewed and what type.

Response: Thank you for guiding to improve the manuscript. The number of articles (123) reviewed were now added for easy understanding of the readers.

4. In the Conclusion and Recommendations, the authors should clearly provide the importance of such a research study and also should provide insights / comparisons of conservation perspectives from other regions (i.e. Pătru-Stupariu I. et. al.. (2020). Using social network methodological approach to better understand human–wildlife interactions. Land Use Policy 99, 105009, Popescu V.D., et. al. (2021) Trophy hunting undermines public trust. Science 372 (6546), 1049).

Response:  Thank you for your good comments for improving the manuscript. The conclusion is revised and the importance of this research work is mentioned. The reference are now added and the required revision is performed accordingly.

5. Figure 2 is not referenced in the text and should be better explained.

Response: Thank you for guiding us to improve the paper. The required correction is done in the revised version.

6. As well, table 2 is not referenced in the text.

Response: Thank you for guiding us to improve the paper. The required correction is done in the revised version.

Reviewer 3 Report

This manuscript is well organized and the drawn conclusions are coherent with the obtained results.

Line 31: It is Socio-Ecological System (SES).

Lines 41 – 42: The keywords should be alphabetically arranged.

Line 45: The scientific name of the snow leopard must be in italics.

Lines 81 – 83: I think that you should add this recent references to support this your sentence: “Conservation policies are effective only if they incorporate ecological and social mechanisms that affect the socio-ecological systems”. I would like to suggest:

Goursi, U. H., et al. (2021). Spatial distribution of the threatened Asiatic black bear in northern Pakistan. Ursus, 2021(32e13), 1-5.

Lines 84 – 89: The goals of this manuscript should be rewritten. They are not clear.  

Lines 113 – 114: I think that you should add this recent references to support this your sentence: “their habitat through loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat”. I would like to suggest:

Abhijitha, C. S., Areendran, G., Raj, K., Bhat, P., & Sahana, M. (2021). Habitat linkages for Asian elephants in central indian landscape. In Habitat, Ecology and Ekistics (pp. 75-89). Springer, Cham. 

Author Response

Reviewer #3:

1. Line 31: It is Socio-Ecological System (SES).

Response: Thank you for guiding us to improve the paper. The required correction is done in the revised version.

2. Lines 41 – 42: The keywords should be alphabetically arranged.

 Response: Thanks for your comment. The key words are arranged alphabetically now.

3. Line 45: The scientific name of the snow leopard must be in italics.

Response: Thank you for bringing up this mistake. The correction is made in the manuscript now.

4. Lines 81 – 83: I think that you should add this recent references to support this your sentence: “Conservation policies are effective only if they incorporate ecological and social mechanisms that affect the socio-ecological systems”. I would like to suggest:

Goursi, U. H., et al. (2021). Spatial distribution of the threatened Asiatic black bear in northern Pakistan. Ursus, 2021(32e13), 1-5.

Response:  Thank you for your good comments for improving the manuscript. The reference is now added and revised accordingly.

5. Lines 84 – 89: The goals of this manuscript should be rewritten. They are not clear.  

Response: Thank you for guiding us to improve the paper. The required correction is done in the revised version. The goals are rewritten for this manuscript in the revised version.

6. Lines 113 – 114: I think that you should add this recent references to support this your sentence: “their habitat through loss, degradation, and fragmentation of habitat”. I would like to suggest:

Abhijitha, C. S., Areendran, G., Raj, K., Bhat, P., & Sahana, M. (2021). Habitat linkages for Asian elephants in central indian landscape. In Habitat, Ecology and Ekistics (pp. 75-89). Springer, Cham. 

Response:  Thank you for your guidance. We have added this recent reference to support the sentence.

We hope that this will be a final file. The uploaded file is in the clean form. Thank you so much for your kind comments.

We wish to thank the reviewers for their detailed review, efforts and contribution to the scientific community as a reviewer.

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

I thought further of my comments and they would take much time and effort and may not be in fact needed for a "review" paper as this one is classed as. It could be a follow up paper(s). For example there is a current call out now for papers on impacts of fencing on wildlife. I would be glad to assist or provide further information.

There is a paper by Shanti Alexander on snow leopard incentives that should be added 

Environmental Management (2021) 68:87–99
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01469-8

Author Response

Horizon Scan of Transboundary Concerns Impacting Snow leopard Landscapes in Asia

We first want to thank reviewer #2 for his/her careful reading of our manuscript. We got one comment on our manuscript. We have responded to this comment and incorporated the revision into our revised manuscript.

Response to Comments from Reviewer #2

 Comment 1:

I thought further of my comments and they would take much time and effort and may not be in fact needed for a "review" paper as this one is classed as. It could be a follow up paper(s). For example there is a current call out now for papers on impacts of fencing on wildlife. I would be glad to assist or provide further information.

There is a paper by Shanti Alexander on snow leopard incentives that should be added 

Environmental Management (2021) 68:87–99
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01469-8

Response:

Thanks for your constructive comments. We appreciate good suggestions. We are interested to know about the call for papers on impact of fencing on wildlife. We will be glad to work on this issue in future. Please provide us further information.

We have added this article by Justine Shanti Alexander on snow leopard incentives to our manuscript.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx