Qinghai to promote Kekexili's bid for world heritage status

Tibetan antelopes at the Kekexili Nature Reserve. [file photo]

Qinghai plans to push forward the Kekexili Nature Reserve's application for world natural heritage, according to a recent Xinhua report.

Jia Yingzhong, director of the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Qinghai Province, said that Qinghai has started work on an application for UNESCO world natural heritage status in late 2014. In 2015 Kekexili is expected be included on China's tentative list of world heritage sites. Qinghai plans to complete all preparatory work in 2017 for the vote on its application at the annual meeting of the World Heritage Committee.

Kekexili, also known as Hoh Xil, in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, covers 45,000-sq km with an average altitude of 4,600 meters. It is known as China's largest area of uninhabited land. A paradise for wild animals, it is home to several endangered species, including the Tibetan antelope.

Tibetan antelopes were targeted by poachers because they produce the finest wool in the world, known as shahtoosh, a Persian word which means "king of wool". Beginning in the late 1980s, shahtoosh shawls became high fashion accessories in Europe and the United States, which fueled a black market. The result was that by 1997, the number of Tibetan antelopes dramatically fell from 200,000 to 20,000.

To save Tibetan antelopes from extinction, the Chinese government set up the Kekexili Nature Reserve in 1995, and upgraded it to a state-listed reserve in 1997. Due to China's anti-poaching efforts, no armed poaching has been reported since 2006 in Hoh Xil and the population of Tibetan antelopes in this region has grown to around 60,000, according to statistics provided by Kekexili Nature Reserve Administration Bureau.

Jia said that Kekexili's bid for world heritage status will enhance its reputation as a world ecological brand, attract more volunteers to engage in ecological protection and lead to economic and social development with ecological protection in mind.

China currently has 47 sites on world heritage lists, but Qinghai, as China and even Asia's important ecological and water conservation area, is not on any of these lists. Qinghai selected Kekexili from a number of candidates, including the Kunlun Mountains, Qinghai Lake, the Qaidam Basin and Sanjiangyuan – the "source of three rivers".