From crested ibises to pandas, China lights conservation path

As a country rich in wildlife species, China has provided significant support for biodiversity conservation and promoting global ecological development, officials and experts said.

"China emphasizes the construction of ecological civilization, and has made joint efforts to build a community with a shared future for mankind — strengthening wildlife protection and international cooperation that is crucial to that process," said Wang Weisheng, director of the flora and fauna department at the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

Wang said China's restoration of the once nearly extinct crested ibis population is a "successful model for saving endangered species worldwide".

In recent decades, by providing genetic resources and technical guidance, China has supported Japan and South Korea in restoring crested ibis populations in the wild.

Crested ibises were once widely distributed across East Asia, but were believed to have disappeared from the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and other areas by the 20th century.

In 1981, wildlife experts discovered seven crested ibises in the Qinling Mountains in Northwest China's Shaanxi province. China later gifted several of the birds to Japan and South Korea to assist in saving their populations.

The known global crested ibis population now exceeds 10,000, and all are believed to be descendants of the seven found in the Qinling Mountains, according to the management bureau of the Hanzhong Crested Ibis National Nature Reserve.

Through collaborative breeding and research efforts with China, Japan's crested ibis population has reached 693. The Japanese Ministry of the Environment has downgraded the crested ibis' status on the country's Red List of Endangered Species from "extinct in the wild" to "critically endangered".

In South Korea, more than 500 crested ibises have been bred at a center. More importantly, the birds have been reintroduced into the wild in all three countries, the forestry and grassland administration said.

Wang said China has also helped with the recovery of the Gobi bear population. In August, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Forestry said they had recently spotted a Gobi bear in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, marking the first recorded sighting of the endangered species in China.

In 2018, China and Mongolia signed an agreement on the implementation of a technical assistance project to save the Gobi bears and improve their range. Through six years of continuous monitoring and protection efforts, the Gobi bear population has grown from 20 to exceeded 50, said a member of the research team.

For 12 years, China has also organized wildlife protection and compliance training courses and workshops for wildlife conservation officers in developing countries in Asia and Africa to enhance their protection capabilities, he said.

However, among all these international wildlife protection efforts, the most fruitful and globally recognized is the conservation and breeding of giant pandas.