Mapping Leopard Conservation Priorities in Southeast Asia

The Indochinese leopard (Panthera pardus delacouri) is one of the most endangered leopard subspecies, restricted to less than 4% of its historical range across Southeast Asia. With severe population declines driven by poaching, habitat loss and fragmentation, and prey depletion, effective recovery requires urgent, spatially-informed conservation action. This study presents the first comprehensive connectivity analysis for the Indochinese leopard across its extant and former range, aiming to identify core habitats, connectivity corridors, 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, 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 to conserve. In the former range, our analysis revealed potential for large-scale metapopulation structural connectivity across Cambodia and Lao PDR, despite recent local extirpations. Realizing reintroduction opportunities will require complementary 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 still 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 prioritize actions for preventing extinction and guiding large carnivore recovery across fragmented tropical landscapes.