The Guardians of Mountain Biodiversity

Gaoligong Mountain is located along the border of China and Myanmar. With an area of 2,800 square kilometers, it is home to about 17 percent of China’s higher plants, 30 percent of mammals and 35 percent of birds, making it one of the world’s most biodiverse places outside of the tropics.

Protecting Biological Paradise

The Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve, located in Baoshan City and Nujiang Lisu Autonomous Prefecture of southwestern China’s Yunnan Province, is the primary line of defense for ecological security in southwestern China.

The nature reserve’s 35 years of successful experience exploring biodiversity conservation has created numerous vivid cases testifying to China’s continuous efforts to promote biodiversity governance and ecological civilization.

For historical reasons, although Gaoligong Mountain features a scene of biological prosperity, it also shines light on how problematic fragmented biological distribution is.

“In the past, when we talked about protecting mountains, we always just closed them off,”said Li Zhengbo, a senior engineer with the Forestry and Grassland Administration of Baoshan City."Now, scientific protection has replaced traditional methods, which is more conducive to multilevel and comprehensive research and monitoring of Gaoligong Mountain.”Frontline scientific researchers, ecological conservation staff, and local residents all act as “security guards” for the mountain.

Zhang Min, a forest ranger from the Dulong ethnic group at the Dulongjiang station under the nature reserve’s Gongshan Management and Conservation Bureau, is responsible for collecting animal and plant data.

In 2015, Zhang started learning how to use infrared cameras and soon he could teach his colleagues. In cooperation with biologists, they successfully captured precious images of local takins with infrared cameras. Every four months, Zhang and his colleagues go up the mountain to patrol, collect images captured by infrared cameras, and move them around.

Li Jiahua, deputy director of the Longyang branch of the nature reserve’s Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau, has been working in Gaoligong Mountain for 26 years.

“Although monitoring work in the wild is hard, we have often been deeply impressed by the vitality of nature, such as blossoms of a rarely seen flower, hovering birds never seen before, and stunning landscapes,”he grinned.

On December 8, 1995, the Gaoligong Mountain Farmers’ Biodiversity Protection Association, the first of its kind in China, was established in Baihualing Village. So far, its membership has grown from 65 to 151, and the association led the villages around Gaoligong Mountain to establish 46 community co-management organizations.

Hou Xingzhong, secretary-general of the association, explained that the association mainly focuses on publicizing laws and regulations on biodiversity conservation of Gaoligong Mountain, participating in ecological protection and co-management, and encouraging development of green industries. Increasing numbers of farmers have joined the effort, and their attitudes have shifted dramatically to total willingness to help.

The Xiaoheishan provinciallevel nature reserve in Longling County, Baoshan City, is a concentration of rare plants on the Chinese border. In 2020, an extremely rare plant species, Hoya gaoligong, was discovered there. “The discovery of Hoya gaoligong and the increase in the population of Trachypithecus phayrei are only part of the achievements of the Xiaoheishan nature reserve,” said Liu Yong, director of the nature reserve’s Management and Conservation Bureau. “More biodiversity secrets are waiting to be disclosed and more interesting stories to be explored.”

Dilemma and Revival

Hoolock tianxing is a species of gibbon under first-class state protection in China, with an estimated population of no more than 150 today. Along the biological corridor of the Nankang management and conservation  station in Gaoligong Mountain resides the one and only known family of Hoolock tianxing including a father, a mother, and their son.

After serving as a forest ranger for 13 years, Yang Youshan is quite familiar with the gibbon family. He noted that generally the activity radius of Hoolock tianxing is five kilometers or so while the nearest other group of the same species is 20 kilometers away. Destruction of forests in the nature reserve has expanded natural barriers, leaving little possibility that the young gibbon ever encounters a potential mate.

The Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau of the Gaoligong Mountain National Nature Reserve has introduced a series of rescue measures to benefit Hoolock tianxing, such as prohibiting illegal collection, logging, poaching, grazing, and other human activities. Since 2017, the authorities have been implementing a real-time monitoring and protection program while continuously popularizing science education on sustainability to raise public awareness and strengthening cooperation with scientific research institutions.

Scientific conservation has achieved rewarding outcomes in recent years. According to Yang Rongting, director of the Guochengshan Management and Conservation Station of the Xiaoheishan nature reserve, infrared-camera monitoring has found significantly enhanced exchange between species of the two nature reserves along the biological corridor. For example, they noticed an increase in the population of Trachypithecus phayrei, an endangered animal under first-class state protection, up from 130 in four groups to more than 300 in eight groups. Data like that testifies to an improved ecological environment. Biologists hope that Hoolock tianxing will soon overcome their survival predicament.

Duan Shaozhong, deputy director of the Tengchong branch of the Baoshan Management and Conservation Bureau, highlighted the revival story of Rhododendron protistum var. giganteum, commonly called the big tree rhododendron. Known as the largest species of rhododendron in the world, it is characterized by a sizable frame with large and beautiful flowers that grow quite slowly. An extremely valuable and endangered species in the world flora community, Rhododendron protistum var. giganteum has been listed as a critical species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In 1918, British biologist George Forrest discovered a rhododendron tree taller than 20 meters in the forests of Gaoligong Mountain and brought its trunk specimens back to England. “For quite a long time, people thought it was the last big tree rhododendron in the world,” Duan said.

In 1982, botanists and researchers found more than 40 big tree rhododendrons in the dense forests in Tengchong. Since then, more and more wild big tree rhododendrons have been gradually discovered in Gaoligong Mountain. Currently, the species’ population stands at about 1,000.

Now, artificial breeding has enabled big tree rhododendrons to enjoy a revival in Gaoligong Mountain. In May 2021, 300 seedlings were replanted there, of which 100 are in the local botanical garden and the other 200 grow promisingly in the Linjiapu forest farm.