Going Wild About Conservation

　　Pan Jie must stay highly alert every time he goeson duty. Operating in Fangchenggang City, Pan, a borderinspector, is constantly on the lookout for wildlife smugglerswho are active in the area.

　　An important gateway to Southeast Asia, the city,locatedin south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region,is a nexus for illegal wildlife trade, including the smugglingof ivory, rhino horns and pangolin scales from Africa. OnJune 15, Pan helped local border police seize 160 boxes ofreptiles that were being smuggled into China. Weighing6.5 tons, the shipment included protected species ofcobras and geochelone, a species of tortoise.

　　But this bust is only a small part of China’sintensive fight against wildlife trafficking. Anotherrecent case on May 22 resulted in customs officersin Manzhouli City, north China’s Inner MongoliaAutonomous Region, confiscating 213 bearpaws that were being smuggled by two Russianmen. The seized paws have an estimated worthof around 2.8 million yuan ($460,000), makingthis the biggest seizure of bear paws in China’shistory.

　　Chinese law stipulates that those smugglingnationally protected species and their derivativescan be sentenced up to over 10 years in prison for themost serious infractions.

　　“These cases are proof that China is working harderthan ever to crack down on illegal wildlife trade,” said YinHong, Vice Minister of China’s State Forestry Administration(SFA), at a press briefing in May that covered China’s effortsto protect wild animals. Yin also noted that the crackdownshowed improvements in law enforcement efficiency.

　　As a responsible stakeholder, China has been doing itsbest to protect world wildlife by establishing a completenetwork of nature reserves and a regulatory systemfor wildlife trade. At the same time, the nation is alsotaking initiative in building international cooperationto fight cross-border smuggling of protectedwildlife.

　　Protection network

　　Yin said that the declining populationtrends of China’s endangered animals, includinggiant pandas and Siberian tigers, havebeen reversed. The latest wildlife censusreleased at the press conference showed thatthe number of wild Siberian tigers has risenfrom 12 to 16 in 2000 to current numbers of 18 to 22, andthere are more than 1,700 crested ibis now living in the wildand in captivity compared to only seven in 1981. The numberof giant pandas in the wild and in captivity has also climbed,reaching 1,596 and 341 respectively. The total number ofChinese alligators also increased to more than 10,000 fromonly 300 in the 1980s.

　　“One reason for these increases is the growing area ofnatural reserves,” said Yin. China has established 2,150 naturereserves, helping to conserve 85 percent of the nation’sprotected wildlife.

　　This population growth is also attributed to the wildlifemonitoring and prevention system created to control disease,said Yin. There are now 350 national, 768 provincial anda number of county-level monitoring stations that run nearly10,000 monitoring sites and patrol routes. “They [the monitoringstations] have also been vital in monitoring past bird fluepidemics,” she said.

　　In addition, China is enforcingnew laws and regulations,implementing a labeling system for ivory products andsetting up a national coordination group that deals withconservation issues.

　　Public awareness

　　More and more activists from the private sector are gettinginvolved in wildlife protection, with a large number of animalprotection efforts being run by non-governmental organizationsand environmental activists. Zhou Xinyi, a senior atYangzhou University, is one such activist. With her classmates,Zhou initiated a campaign aimed at increasing publicawareness of red-crowned cranes, a protected species inChina, by investigating the ecosystem on which they depend.“We hope to make a difference through our efforts to influencepolicymaking and raise public awareness,” said Zhou.

　　Authorities are taking steps to the support the privatesector’s role in conserving protected species. “Animal rightsorganizations and activists can be trusted and dependedon in regard to wildlife protection,” said Yin. “We encouragethem to play a more important role in educating the publicand supervising illegal activities,” she added.

　　International cooperation

　　Illegal trade in wildlife is an international crime that can onlybe effectively curbed through coordinated efforts by origin,transit and destination countries, said Wan Ziming, Director ofEnforcement and Training at the Endangered Species Importand Export Management Office of SFA.

　　China joined the Convention on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies (CITES) in 1981 to regulate trade in wildlifeand foster international cooperation. CITES aims to preventinternational trade from threatening the survival of wild floraand fauna. Today, it remains one of the world’s most powerfultools for this purpose.

　　“In the more than 30 years since China joined CITES, thenation has actively fulfilled its responsibilities, participated ininternational cooperation and played an important role inwildlife protection and trade regulation,” said John E. Scanlon,Secretary General of CITES at the 16th meeting of its Conferenceof the Parties, held this March in Bangkok, Thailand.

　　China also takes initiative in clamping down on transnationalwildlife crimes. An operation codenamed Cobra, ledby the Chinese Government from January 6 to February 5 ofthis year, brought together police, customs and wildlife officersfrom 22 countries in Asia and Africa, to crack down onthe smuggling of some key species, such as Asian big cats,elephants, great apes, pangolins and rhinos.

　　As part of the operation, 6.5 tons of ivory,1.55 tons ofTibetan antelope hides, 22 rhino horns, 10 tiger hides andother products made from CITES-listed protected species,along with live animals, were confiscated.

　　In addition to detecting and seizing contraband, OperationCobra aimed to effectively conduct following-upinvestigations and use specialized investigation techniquesto pursue all possible leads to target the entire criminal chain,said Scanlon.

　　“The operation provided an excellent opportunityforall authorities involved to exchange ways and means ofcombating wildlife crimes, and to establish new professionalrelationships with their counterparts from different agencies,countries and regions of the world,” said Wan Ziming.