China's efforts to save and protect Tibetan antelopes, an endangered animal species on the verge of extinction due to excessive poaching, are seeing success.

For the first time in many years, workers in the Altun Mountains Nature Reserve have not found poaching activities since the summer of last year, said Li Weidong, an official with the protection zone, located in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and one of the three major habitats for Tibetan antelope in the country.

"Gunfight between animal protectors and poachers in the protection zone has become a scene of the past," the official added.

China has established three nature reserves to protect the rare creatures, covering a total of more than 600,000 sq km, or an area 40 times the size of Beijing.

Cega, director of the state-level Hoh Xil Nature Reserve Administration in Qinghai Province, one of the official reserves, said workers have inspected the protection zone more than 20 times and not a single antelope was killed so far this year.

During the past nine months, a gang of armed poachers was foiled by protection zone workers.

The third protection zone, the Qiangtang Nature Reserve, is located in the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China.

Statistics from the three protection zones show that the number of Tibetan antelope now stands at around 70,000 and is expected to keep rising if protective measures are strengthened.

Last year, more than 500 poachers were seized in the protection zones and more than 20 of them were sentenced to a 10-year imprisonment each.

Driven by huge profit, illegal hunters resort to indiscriminate poaching, particularly at the calving grounds, leading to a sharp decrease in the number of Tibetan antelopes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau over the past 20-odd years.

The wool of the Tibetan antelope is used in weaving the "Shahtoosh" shawl, worth about US$10,000 a piece, but at the high price of the lives of three to five Tibetan antelopes.

The number of Tibetan antelope was once as low as 50,000 due to rampant poaching. In the early 20th century, there were millions of the creatures.

The international community can help save Tibetan antelope from extinction by removing "Shahtoosh" shawls from fashion shops.

Weaving and selling of "Shahtoosh" shawls is regarded as illegal in India, and relevant departments in Britain, France, Italy and the United States have also intensified their efforts to crack down on activities involving trading "Shahtoosh" shawls, according to Fan Zhiyong, an official with the China Office for Endangered Species Import and Export Management.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), an NGO aiming to protect animals, has injected an accumulated US$300,000 into protecting Tibetan antelope in China, according to Ge Rui, an official with the IFAW.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2002)