BEIJING, May 26, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Li Shengqian, an elephant ranger, walked through a
large area of flattened cornfields.
He occasionally squatted down and gazed into the distance,
inspecting traces left by the wild Asian elephants.
The previous day, all the elephant rangers in Mengla county,
Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture in Southwest China's Yunnan Province, had gathered in the county
town for a training exercise. As a result, over 40 elephants,
seemingly aware of the humans' absence, descended the mountain and
enjoyed a grand feast.
They slid down muddy slopes, marched through the cornfields,
selected a patch of ripe crops, and promptly ate every sweet corn
stalk, before rollicking in the salty nitrate pond at the foot of
the mountain.
By the time Li and his colleagues received the villagers'
message and arrived, the elephants were already sound asleep deep
in the forest.
A local forestry official told the Global Times that a
third-party insurance company would assess the crop damage caused
by the elephants and compensate the villagers according to relevant
regulations.
Such incidents have become commonplace in Xishuangbanna. Despite
this, people do not complain; instead, the concept of protecting
elephants has become deeply rooted in their hearts, and they
actively engage in conservation efforts.
The scene in Mengla is a snapshot summing up China's work to protect wild Asian elephants,
reflecting the country's biodiversity conservation efforts.
In a recent article on the People's Daily, Huang Runqiu,
Minister of Ecology and Environment, stated that in recent years,
under the scientific guidance of Xi's Thought on Ecological
Civilization, China has elevated
biodiversity conservation to a national priority, continuously
strengthening biodiversity mainstreaming, improving the
biodiversity governance system, and significantly increasing
conservation efforts.
"Biodiversity protection has achieved new results," he said.
An unexpected journey
In March 2020, a group of Asian
elephants left the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve, migrating nearly
500 kilometers north. In April 2021,
the elephant herd appeared in Yuanjiang county, drawing public
attention.
Experts worried that the herd, already a long distance from
suitable habitats, might face survival risks. To ensure the safety
of both humans and elephants, Yunnan
Province established a command center for real-time
monitoring, early warning, and public support.
During this epic elephant expedition, hundreds of thousands of
local residents were evacuated, but all displayed great patience
and tolerance. Residents and businesses along the route showed
remarkable restraint and understanding: when the elephants ate
crops, villagers canceled festive celebrations to avoid disturbing
the herd, while businesses turned off lights and suspended
operations.
The elephants' fascinating behavior during their northward
journey attracted widespread attention. On one farm, the elephants
demonstrated their intelligence by using their trunks to turn on a
water tap and then queuing to drink. During the journey, when a
baby elephant was tired, a drone captured the heartwarming moment
of it nestling beside its mother to sleep.
The elephants' journey captivated the entire country and even
the world, turning them into social media stars. "The elephants
seem very carefree: the sky is their roof, the earth their bed, and
everywhere is home," netizens commented.
After considerable efforts, the elephants began their southward
return in June, successfully crossing the Yuanjiang River in August
and returning to their native habitat.
To build public understanding and support, the Yunnan Forestry
and Grassland Bureau actively promoted ecological concepts and
wildlife protection knowledge, implemented comprehensive measures
to prevent Asian elephant incidents, and ensured reasonable
compensation. By August 8, 2021, the
public liability insurance company had accepted 1,501 claims for
losses caused by Asian elephants, with assessed damages totaling
5.125 million yuan ($740,000).
On October 12, 2021, the leaders'
summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the
Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) was held in Kunming, capital city of
Yunnan Province.
President Xi delivered a keynote speech via video link at the
summit: "China has made remarkable
progress in building an ecological civilization. The recent story
of the northward travel and return of a group of elephants in
Yunnan Province in southwestern
China shows the vivid results of
our endeavor to protect wild animals. China will continue to advance ecological
progress, remain committed to implementing the new development
philosophy emphasizing innovative, coordinated, green and open
development for all, and build a beautiful China."
According to following reports in May
2023, the star elephants in Yunnan have been in good health since
returning south.
The baby elephants gained weight, and the herd absorbed new
members, splitting into two groups in different areas.
Experts regarded this phenomenon as evidence of the herd's
healthy reproduction.
Walking with elephants
Due to extensive conservation efforts, China is one of the few places in the world
where the number of elephants is increasing.
The population of wild Asian elephants in China has grown from about 150 in the 1970s
and 1980s to over 300 today. In the mid-1990s, Asian elephants were
only found in two national nature reserves: Xishuangbanna and
Nangunhe. By the end of 2020, their range had expanded to three
prefectures, 11 counties, and 55 townships in Yunnan, according to the Xinhua News
Agency.
Conservation efforts are comprehensive, with continuous upgrades
in monitoring methods and publicity.
In Dadugang township, Jinghong city, Xishuangbanna, Peng Jinfu,
a dedicated Asian elephant ranger, explained to locals the
importance of elephant protection, methods, and safety precautions
to villagers in the local dialect.
Peng, formerly a forest ranger, became an Asian elephant ranger
due to the increasing number of elephants living in Dadugang. He
and other rangers received training and learned how to communicate
conservation methods to the community.
In Peng's jurisdiction, there are four to five herds with more
than 50 active elephants. He and his partner are often
busy.
Luckily, Peng noted that while they used to rely mainly on
manpower and visual observation to monitor elephants, they now
integrate technology such as drones and infrared cameras, updating
and sharing elephant activity information through WeChat groups,
intelligent loudspeakers with infrared cameras, and the online
warning app, enhancing patrol and early warning capabilities.
He told the Global Times that he and his teammates would
continue to guard their posts, ensuring that elephants and
villagers harmoniously coexist.
For ordinary villagers, the government and volunteers promote
more "elephant-friendly" production and lifestyle methods to
mitigate human-elephant conflicts.
For example, beekeeping, traditional handicrafts, and tea
planting are being promoted to replace activities like rubber
planting and mushroom picking, which harm the rainforest ecosystem
and increase the likelihood of displacement of elephants.
"These communities not only are on the frontlines of
conservation efforts, but also bear great pressure and sacrifices.
We hope to help them achieve better development and harmonious
coexistence with elephants through the project," Ma Chenyue,
Program Manager from the International Fund for Animal Welfare in
China, told the Global
Times.
For the past two decades, Ma's colleagues have been helping
villagers adapt to living with elephants and better protect them
through various means. In December
2016, China announced it
would end the domestic ivory trade within a year. The nationwide
ban on commercial ivory trade took effect on January 1, 2018.
The Kunming commitment
In 2022, as the chair of the COP15, China led
the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework
and a package of supporting policies, charting a new blueprint for
global biodiversity governance for the next decade and beyond. The
country announced an initial contribution of 1.5 billion yuan to establish the Kunming
Biodiversity Fund, effectively boosting global biodiversity
conservation confidence.
Moreover, since 2019, China has
become the largest contributor to the core budget of the Convention
on Biological Diversity and its protocols and the largest
developing country contributor to the Global Environment
Facility.
China has also implemented
major biodiversity conservation initiatives. The country was the
first to propose and implement the ecological conservation redline
system, with over 30 percent of its land territory designated as
ecological conservation redlines, effectively protecting 90 percent
of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of national key
protected wild species.
China also established the
first group of five national parks, including Sanjiangyuan and the
Giant Panda national parks, selected 49 national park candidates,
and established the first national botanical garden.
Comprehensive land greening actions have been put in place, with
52 integrated protection and restoration projects for mountains,
rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts,
covering over 1 billion mu (66.67 million hectares). Forest
coverage has increased to over 24 percent, making China the country with the largest and
fastest-growing forest resources. Efforts to protect and restore
typical marine ecosystems have also been advanced, with mangrove
areas increasing to 438,000 mu, making China one of the few countries with a net
increase in mangrove areas.
"It is difficult to achieve results alone, but easy to achieve
with collective action. China will
work hand in hand with the international community, advancing
courageously to maintain a fair and reasonable global biodiversity
conservation order, promote global biodiversity governance to a new
level, and jointly build a beautiful Earth where humans and nature
coexist harmoniously," said Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and
Environment.
https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202405/1312743.shtml
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SOURCE Global Times