They pretended to drive their yaks towards the southern rangelands by day, but actually moved towards the core areas of Changtang National Nature Reserve in northern Gertse by night.

When they entered the no-man's lands of the largest reserves in China which cover an area of about 298,000 square kilometers in the northwestern part of Tibet, they started to hunt Tibetan antelopes (chiru in Tibetan) with their rifles.

On June 1, the poachers encountered three rangers from Nima County which borders Gertse in the east. They laid an ambush and shot a ranger dead.

When the police caught seven of the poachers later that month, they seized four rifles, more than 300 antelope furs and more than 1,200 bullets.

The region's biggest case of poaching in the past two years impelled Dawa Tsering and Drolma Yangzom to cooperate and hold a training course of wildlife conservation and management in the county.

"I made a trip to Changtang in July to investigate our current projects and collect information for future work," said Dawa, Tibet Program coordinator of WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) China Program Office.

"In Shuanghu (Special Administrative District) and Nima County, I sensed the locals' strengthened awareness of conservation, but I heard of the case in Gertse. I knew it was the place where immediate action should be carried out."

Back in Lhasa, he proposed to Drolma, director of Nature Reserve Management Office of the region's forestry department, that WWF Tibet Program and the department co-sponsor a training course in Gertse. She accepted.

On September 25, the two left Lhasa together with 11 members of a Sino-Norwegian expedition which would make a wildlife survey in the core areas of the reserve in northern Gertse following the training exercise.

At the end of a journey covering more than 1,200 kilometers, the group arrived in the county seat of Gertse in the small hours of September 27. In the afternoon, the four-day training course was opened in the building of the local government.

The training course attracted more than 30 local Tibetan administrators and reserve rangers from the county town and six townships of Gertse.

Lectures covered multi-disciplinary issues while participants learned of the uniqueness of the Changtang reserve and the importance of protecting it from an international perspective.

"There are only two or three regions in the world where people can still see a large number of big mammals migrating in the wild," said Dr Joseph L. Fox, associate professor from the University of Tromso in Norway. "Changtang is one of them. Chiru is one of several migratory mammal species that still exist on the planet.

"I saw 12,000 chirus there almost two years ago. Certainly we should keep such an amazing place undisturbed."

The country has already established legal provisions for nature reserves and wildlife conservation such as the Changtang reserve, Drolma said.

And with the help of local participants, Drolma confirmed the boundaries of experimental, buffer and core zones of the reserve in the county and defined different means of management in different zones.

"We know we can plan some development projects in some areas of the reserve, but are unable to do so in other areas," she said.

During the sessions, Migmar Wangdwei, a lecturer from Tibet University, talked about the food chain of the rangeland ecosystem in this area. Shichu Dorje, a researcher from Tibet Institute of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, spoke on management and development of rangelands.

Dawa Tsering introduced basic methods of wildlife surveying and monitoring. A specially designed wildlife survey and monitor data sheet in both Tibetan and Chinese was distributed to trainees.

"They can use it during their usual conservation works," he explained.

"After one or two years, the forestry department will collect these sheets and get a broader view of the living circumstances of wildlife in the reserve."

The lectures proved to be inspirational.

"Before the training session was held, I didn't know that wolves and (Tibetan) pika played an important role in maintaining our grassland environment," said Nima Gyalpo, a trainee from Dongtso Township in southern Gertse.

"I thought they were harmful animals and should be exterminated."

Pudado, head of Xianqian Township in Northern Gertse, said: "Now I know a large part of our township belongs to the core zone of the reserve."

But attendants from three townships - Dongtso, Mami and Wuma in southern Gertse - looked baffled at their involvement because none of the townships are within the limits of jurisdiction of the reserve.

"Though not many chirus are seen in our township, there are many kiangs (Tibetan wild donkey), guwas (Tibetan gazelle) and birds," said Dawa Lobsang, head of the Wuma Township. "Some areas of our township should become part of the reserve."

The lectures led to heated brainstorming discussions among participants. Many problems were put on the table.

Norlha, head of the county, said that Tibetan nomads in the area had the tradition of hunting wild animals to eat. The major reason for illegal hunting in Gertse remained the extreme shortage of daily necessities in remote northern pastoral areas.

According to the official, Gertse covers an area of more than 100,000 square kilometers and just Chabu Township has an area of more than 30,000 square kilometers. Because of poor transportation and communication conditions, many nomads can only rely on traders from eastern Tibet for their daily necessities.

As a result, some traders tempt them to hunt chirus in exchange for the goods they need. Gyalla, head of the local forestry police, said suspects in the June case admitted some traders provided rifles and bullets to them and promised a brand-new truck for their chiru furs.

But there are only 800-900 villages with a population of less than 4,000, Norlha said. "We could build houses and dig wells to settle them in the southern rangelands so they will no longer suffer from shortages of daily necessities.

"In this way, we can leave more space to wildlife and decrease incidents of poaching and conflict between animals and human beings."

But many experts pointed out it might not be a good idea. The risk of environmental degradation through fencing pastures on a large scale and over-grazing remains.

Many trainees complained that a kind of toxic weed had been spreading rapidly in the southern rangelands of the county for several years and this had led to many sheep and goats dying every year.

"It's probably a sign of rangeland degradation," said Migmar Wangdwei.

As a result, many nomads have chosen to herd cattle northwards for better pasture, even into the core areas of the reserve, which in turn has intensified the competition between wildlife and livestock.

Dawa, deputy director of Chabu Township, said male wild yaks often sneaked into a herd of yaks, killed male yaks and seduced female yaks to leave the herd. When herdsmen tried to separate wild yaks and their yaks, they were often hurt or even killed by the animals.

Pudado said a large group of kiangs, often more than 100, could easily eat grass on a whole stretch of pasture reserved by nomads for their livestock. So herdsmen often fence their pasture or fire warning shots to keep kiangs out.

"But the fence and shots sometimes hurt or killed the animal," he said.

Many trainees said the local population of Tibetan wild donkey has increased too fast in recent years and the animal is becoming a harmful creature. Some asked whether the local government could reduce the population by planned hunting.

"Absolutely not," said Drolma. "No matter how many kiangs there are, they are still a species under the State's first-level protection. Hunting them in terms of anything so far has been illegal."

Joseph Fox added: "We must know a limit is always there. Many pastures we now occupy used to be land for wildlife."

In addition, many local attendants pointed out that mining was becoming a threat to the reserve, as miners illegally hunted for food and some mining activities seriously damaged the environment.

Though the participants have yet to come up with solutions to these problems, the training did go beyond discussions.

Drolma said she would send her proposals to policy-makers in the region to ensure environmental impact evaluation was added to the approval procedure for future mining projects, especially those within nature reserves.

"Of course no mining activity is allowed in buffer and core zones of a reserve," she said.

Shichu said that he would make efforts to seek a project to study the toxic weed.

More importantly, the local forestry bureau signed an agreement with the government of each of the three townships (Xianqian, Gumu and Chabu) in northern Gertse during the training.

According to this agreement, the bureau will provide basic transport equipment, communication and monitoring of the protection station in each of the townships, training for local patrolmen, and funds to maintain the station.

In return, township governments are responsible for improving conservation awareness of local people, employing patrolmen, supervising daily work of protection stations, and organizing patrols.

Drolma and Dawa also declared that Tibet Forestry Department and WWF Tibet Programme would launch some cooperative projects to improve the capacity of wildlife conservation in Gertse as well as the local nomads' life.

The forestry department will soon provide a truck and a wireless transmitter to each of the three townships for patrolling the reserve and transporting daily necessities to nomads living in remote rangelands, Drolma said.

Dawa said that he would raise 50,000 yuan (US$6,040) for each of the three townships to purchase necessities in Lhasa.

"We expect the trucks and the fund will help build up a small commodities supply center in each of the townships," Dawa explained. "This will definitely benefit both conservation and people's lives."

Puchong, deputy director of Xianqian Township, said the township would not accept the money right away.

"We're not sure whether we can run the business well," he said.

"We will wait and see."

(China Daily November 6, 2002)