Mapping Leopard Conservation Priorities in Southeast Asia

The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is one of the most endangered leopard subspecies, restricted to < 4% of its historical range across Southeast Asia. With severe declines driven by poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation, and prey depletion, recovery requires urgent, spatially informed conservation action. This study presents the first connectivity analysis for the Indochinese leopard across its extant and former range, aiming to identify core habitats, priority connectivity areas and opportunities for population restoration. We used resistant kernel modelling through the CoLa Decision Support System to evaluate landscape connectivity across 14 forest complexes in the extant range and 11 potential reintroduction areas, considering scenarios of extant, reintroduction and combined range connectivity. Importance to connectivity was assessed based on Kernel Extent, Kernel Sum, movement density and protected area overlap. Our results confirmed the Dawna-Tenasserim landscape, spanning parts of Thailand and Myanmar, and Peninsular Malaysia as the most critical strongholds. In the former range, our analysis revealed potential for large-scale metapopulation structural connectivity across Cambodia and Lao PDR, despite recent extirpations. We stress that reintroduction opportunities will require actions such as reducing poaching, restoring prey and improving habitat management. In some complexes, intensive landscape restoration may be needed to reconnect major core areas with smaller reintroduction complexes that could be critical for meta-population connectivity. Despite increasing human pressure in the region, substantial habitat and connectivity potential remain. Our framework provides a spatial foundation to prioritise actions for preventing extinction of this subspecies and guiding large carnivore recovery across fragmented tropical landscapes.