The Northern Areas is one of the poorest regions of Pakistan, itself one of the poorest countries in the world. It contains some of the world's highest mountain ranges and is host to a diverse flora and fauna, including the charismatic but highly threatened Snow Leopard.

Shafqat Hussein's Project Snow Leopard received the very first Rufford Small Grant, having been a runner-up for the Whitley Gold Award in 1999. The project can be considered an extremely successful template for resolving issues of conflict that has been followed by many subseqeunt grant recipients.

Through its insurance scheme and ecotourism activities, PSL has been able to institutionalize an incentive structure conducive to snow leopard conservation friendly behavior, and thus bring about a discernable behavioral change among the villagers, who previously reacted violently against the snow leopard following livestock killings.

Annual biological and attitudinal surveys show that the two main goals, a stabile snow leopard population and a positive change in the attitude of the people toward the snow leopard, are being achieved. Before the initiation of the project, the villagers frequently complained about the presence of snow leopard in their valley and requested the local wildlife department staff and conservation NGOs such as WWF and IUCN to take “their” snow leopard away. PSL alleviated the farmers’ hardship and created a flow of real economic benefits to the community, since then the snow leopard has become “our” snow leopard for the community. This change in attitude from rejection to ownership over the snow leopard is attributed to the success of the PSL.

Project Snow Leopard subsequently received continuation funding from the Whitley Fund for Nature and in 2006 Shafqat Hussain received a Rolex Award in recognition of his pioneering work.