(CN) Nation to build tiger reserves

[Guest guest]

HARBIN: China will build nature reserves for Siberian tigers in their native

habitat of Northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces bordering

Russia, according to a Chinese official.

 

Heilongjiang Province will build a 17,000-hectare nature reserve in Jidong

County and another one that covers 100,000 hectares of land to the east of

the Wanda Mountain, local officials said last month at an international

seminar on the protection of wild Siberian tigers in China.

 

Jilin Province and local governments in Russia are also making their own

plans to build nature reserves for Siberian tigers.

 

Wild Siberian tigers will have a better environment for free migration and

mating across the two nations when the nature reserves are completed,

experts said.

 

Siberian tigers are on the verge of extinction, with only 500 left in the

world. Most Siberian tigers live in the far east of Russia and Northeast

China.

 

The 93 Siberian tigers left in China now are not enough to form into a group

with a reproductive capacity, according to the latest international

investigation.

 

However, statistics show that about 400 Siberian tigers are still living in

Russia in groups that do have a reproductive capacity.

 

" Establishing nature reserves will bring benefits to tigers in both

countries, " said G. N. Kolonin, an expert with the Russian Federation State

Committee for Environmental Protection. " Russia has a great interest in

co-operating with China in this work. "

 

China and Russia signed an agreement to jointly protect rare plants and

Siberian tigers in the 1990s.

 

Experts suggested that the two nations should enhance mutual ties to fight

against illegal poaching and forest activities, move local residents to

other places and build a " green passage " so the tigers can have free and

safe movement.

 

China will form a patrol team to help stop the poaching of Siberian tigers

in northeastern China.

 

It is a challenging but essential task to prevent the illegal hunting and

trading of tiger bones, said officials in charge of the protection of

Siberian tigers in the wild.

 

China is to eliminate, by law and through education, tiger poaching and

trade in tiger bones.

 

Tiger bone used to be a key ingredient in various traditional Chinese

medicines, which were believed to be able to cure bone and muscle-related

diseases.

 

China banned the production of such medicines and other products containing

tiger bones in 1993. Criminal Law details several articles on the punishment

of illegal hunting, smuggling and trade in wildlife.

 

China has reported only two cases of the illegal hunting of Siberian tigers

in recent years.

 

Kolonin, chief expert of the environmental protection committee of Russia,

said dozens of cases of Siberian tiger poaching occur in Russia each year.

Some tiger products, including tiger bones, are even smuggled out of Russia.

 

Xinhua

 

 

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11/08/2000

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