Bird preservationist on a mission(3)

Photo provided to China Daily

There are about 300,000 bird lovers in Chengdu thanks to the society. Shen's aim is to raise the number to 1 million.

"Sichuan ranks No 2 in China in terms of the number of birds and lags behind only Yunnan province," he says.

Many people in China consider birds a delicacy, but Shen says a sustainable way of protecting birds is to raise the income of local people. He cites the Mengtun Valley in Lixian in Sichuan's Aba Tibetan and Qiang autonomous prefecture as an example.

The 2,700 people who live in the valley used to survive by hunting for food and chopping down trees for firewood. Their average annual income was about 2,000 yuan ($323).

As an increasing number of bird watchers and hikers started to visit the township, locals set up guesthouses and served meals to visitors. Realizing more birds and better ecology meant more visitors and income, they gave up hunting and logging, and started to work on protecting birds.

Last year, the annual average income in the valley skyrocketed to 11,000 yuan, thanks to the influx of bird watchers and hikers, according to Zhou Lizhi, an official in Lixian.