Saving the World for Animals

By staff reporter CHENG WENJUN

The great expanse of Qinghai Lake constitutes a world of birds as diversified and intricate as that of mankind. Cormorants are skillful fish catchers. They leave for a day of diving every morning and return in the evening to feed their nestlings with the bounty stuffed in their gullets. Bar-headed geese show astonishing loyalty to their partners: if one partner dies the other will remain single until its own death. Brown-headed gulls, scavengers all, can't dive and so feed on dead fish that rise to the water's surface. Great black-headed gulls are natural born fish-catchers as well, but have a reputation for being gluttonous and lazy, not helped by being observed thieving nest-building materials gathered by their neighbors, the bar-headed geese.

Flocking to Breed

Qinghai Lake, also called Koko Nor in Mongolian (meaning "blue sea"), is situated in Qinghai Province in northwestern China. It is the country's largest inland and saltwater lake, and has been made China's largest natural bird sanctuary. Every spring the birds living in South Asia fly northward over the snow-covered Himalayas, and some of the flocks settle near Qinghai Lake for breeding.

Here is a paradise for both birds and animal lovers. Lakeside, an expanse of prairie is arrested by a gorgeous mountain range capped in white snow year round; this breathtaking scenery has attracted an unbroken stream of tourists. The Tour de Qinghai Lake International Road Cycling Race, the highest altitude cycling race in the world, is held here during July and August every year.

Ge Yuxiu is an active environmentalist who protects Qinghai Lake through photography. After retiring from the army he became interested in photographic arts and especially the subject of animals. In the 15 years of watching his feathered friends at Qinghai Lake through his camera lens he has not only observed birds breeding, but also witnessed the deterioration of their living environment. A steady fall in water level has split the water body into several smaller lakes; desertification poses an increasing threat to the birds' subsistence; and the sharp decrease of scaleless carp in the lake has made it more difficult for birds to get enough food to thrive.

"If we just leave it uncurbed, the birds' breeding ground will be history in less than 40 years, which will greatly harm the eco-system of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau," cautions Chen Guichen, an expert at the Northwest Institute of Plateau Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The shrinkage of Qinghai Lake is generally attributed to global warming, human activities and decreasing rainfall. In 2003 a campaign to save Qinghai Lake was launched, and in the same year a provincial law Regulations on Ecological Environmental Protection of the Qinghai Lake Valley was put into effect. To preserve its complex lake-plus-grassland ecosystem, the local government has adopted measures focusing on both fronts, including banning fishing to boost fish stocks and seeding grass, and restoring forestland to block sandstorms and encroachment of the desert.

After falling for a few consecutive years, the water level of Qinghai Lake finally began a rising trend in 2005. Now the water surface has increased by 4.3 square kilometers. Ge recorded the encouraging changes with his camera: more and more birds are retreating here to breed. To reduce the impact of human activity, birdwatchers are confined to underground corridors.

Fairies of the Plateau

Hoh Xil sits in the northwest of Qinghai at an average elevation of 4,600 meters. Due to the thin air and a moonscape pitted with quicksand and swamps, the region has been designated an "uninhabited area." But it is home to Tibetan antelopes, the "fairies of the plateau."

During his excursions in the area Ge Yuxiu saw some callous photographers on motorcycles drive a herd of animals just to capture the dynamic effects in their works, an action that could easily panic the creatures, exhaust them and eventually lead to death in an oxygen-scarce environment. "Photographers should be environmentalists and bear in mind that we are the intruders while the animals are the masters of the land," says Ge.

At the south entrance to Hoh Xil Nature Reserve, there is the Monument to Sonam Dargyi, a Tibetan hero who died fighting to protect Tibetan antelopes. Many poachers have cast their greedy eyes on the rich fauna and flora resources of Hoh Xil, bringing, with their firearms and other sinister gadgetry, untold damage and loss for this peaceful expanse and its wild habitants.

"Hoh Xil is more a place without law than a place without inhabitants," the late county official once commented. After taking a fact-finding mission to the area, Dargyi, then deputy Party secretary of Zhidoi County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province, established a Wild Animal Protection Office and an Alpine Meadow Protection Office, and led regular patrols to the region. This was enough to make him dangerous to dangerous men. In 1994 Sonam Dargyi was murdered during a fight with poachers. In 1995 Hoh Xil was made a province-level nature reserve which was upgraded to national level in 1997.

The 1,956-kilometer long Qinghai-Tibet Railway runs beside the Monument to Sonam Dargyi. In homage to the late hero, its designers created 33 special passageways for Tibetan antelopes to cross it safely. During the animal's migration season amid the construction in 2002 the builders put down tools to make way for them.

NGO Green-River has been fighting for environmental protection in the Yangtze headwater region and Hoh Xil for ten years and their efforts have laid down a foundation for further protection of Tibetan antelopes. To ensure the inclusion of environmental considerations in the design and construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway, the organization's volunteers traveled nearly 30,000 kilometers over a two-year period, investigating regional conditions from their base at the Sonam Dargyi Nature Protection Station. They collaborated closely with the railway planners and builders.

Along the Qinghai-Tibet Highway traffic signs request drivers slow down as they approach a wild animal crossing. Now pregnant Tibetan antelopes can amble safely across the Qinghai-Tibet Highway or Railway to give birth by the Sun and Zonag Lakes in the hinterland of Hoh Xil.