Winning a top environmental grant was bittersweet for Liang Yunquan on Thursday, as he said he felt his three fallen colleagues were the true winners of the honor.
Liang, captain of the yemaoniu dui, or the Wild Yak brigade, said the three brigade members who died (one by accident and the other two likely shot by poachers) were more deserving of the award from the Conservation and Environmental Grants.
The brigade was set up in 1992 in western China’s Qinghai Province to fight poachers.
Since then, Liang and his staff have cracked over 90 cases and confiscated 8,600 antelope skins.
“We hope all the people of the whole society could join hands together to fight against the unlawful slaughter,” Liang said, “because it is a cause that cannot be accomplished by a few people or certain groups.”
Other environmental workers who were honored on Thursday include Li Rong, a farmer in north China’s Hebei Province who has planted 30,000 trees over the past decades in the deserted mountains surrounding his hometown and four other groups of winners from other parts of China, out of a total of 239 applicants.
“The award will continue to go on next year in a move to promote public awareness about environmental protection and to support those heroes and organizations,” said Vaughn Koshkarian, president of the Asia Pacific Region of Ford Motor Company, the second largest auto manufacturer in the world.
Ford initiated the grants in September to encourage the public to join efforts for environmental protection. The six winners received an award of 1 million yuan (US$120,700).
(China Daily 12/18/2000)
