Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
The third edition of the People's Daily, December 10, 1956.
Scenery of Dinghu Mountain in Zhaoqing City, Guangdong Province. Photo by Wei Jinsong (People's Photo)
In the hot summer, the reporter walked into the Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve in Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, and the feeling of sweltering heat suddenly dissipated. In the distance, dense evergreen broad-leaved forests rise and fall with the mountains, outlining a verdant skyline; on the side of the road, towering banyan trees, lotus trees and camphor trees stretch their branches and transform into natural umbrellas for tourists; under their feet, a few cute little insects quietly crawl by and are enjoying themselves.
More than 60 years ago, an old man went up Dinghu Mountain and was attracted by the scenery of lush greenery and ancient trees. He was the botanist Chen Huanyong, then a member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and director of the South China Institute of Botany. During the Third Session of the First National People's Congress in June 1956, Chen Huanyong and scientists such as Bingzhi, Qian Chongshu, Yang Weiyi, and Qin Renchang proposed to the conference: "Please ask the government to demarcate natural forest logging ban areas in all provinces (autonomous regions) across the country and preserve natural vegetation for scientific research." ”
Subsequently, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with Guangdong Province, separately set aside the 17,325-mu Dinghu Mountain Forest Farm, which was formerly a state-owned Gaoyao forest farm. On June 30, 1956, Dinghushan National Nature Reserve, the first nature reserve in China, was established. 65 years later, this matter was written into the "Memorabilia of the Centenary of the Communist Party of China".
On December 10, 1956, the third edition of the People's Daily published the news "Dinghu Mountain Found Precious Natural Forest", which wrote: "More than a dozen experts in plants, agriculture, forestry, horticulture, geography and other aspects in China recently conducted field observations in Dinghu Mountain in the west of Guangzhou, and determined that among the remaining natural forests covering an area of more than 2,000 mu here, there are many tropical and subtropical trees that have grown for four or five hundred years. ”
In the theme exhibition hall of the Chinese nature reserve located in Dinghu Mountain, the reporter saw the typewriter used by Chen Huanyong before his death, and he did not leave more related objects, but passed on the spirit of the guardian to future generations.
Put on a camouflage suit, pick up the kettle, and plunge into the deep mountains and old forests... This is Huang Zhongliang's daily work status before retirement. In 1982, after graduating from university, he was assigned to Dinghu Mountain, and since then, he has been out of the mountains every morning and returned late, climbing over the hills, preventing mountain fires and blocking indiscriminate logging, and his footprints have spread all over Dinghu Mountain until his retirement in 2017. He collected more than 20,000 plant specimens and established a herbarium. Today's protection framework of Dinghu Mountain was carefully delineated by Huang Zhongliang with his team when he was the head of the Protected Area Management Bureau. "The Dinghu Mountain Biosphere Reserve is divided into three areas, including the core area, the buffer zone and the experimental area, and the core area is completely closed." Huang Zhongliang said that in years, the reserve management bureau has not cut down a single tree.
"Post-80s" Fan Zongji is currently the deputy director of the Protected Area Management Bureau. In 2013, after graduating from Beijing Forestry University with a master's degree, he came to Dinghu Mountain, where his main job was to study and protect wild animals through field research. Fieldwork is inevitable to encounter dangers, sometimes beasts of prey, sometimes bad weather, or various emergencies. But in Fan Zongji's eyes, guarding the mountains and protecting the forest, there are more surprises than thrills. In July 2016, during a field survey, Fan Zongji spotted a small bird grasping a branch. He fixed his eyes on it, and the bird's brow had a striking white color. After research and analysis, this rare bird was identified as a white-browed brown woodpecker, which is a new record of birds appearing in Dinghu Mountain. "Later, the white-browed brown woodpecker appeared more and more frequently, especially from April to July every year, they would come to roost and breed." Fan Zongji said happily.
Since Fan Zongji joined the work, 15 new bird species have been added to the reserve, and 267 species of birds exist in the reserve, accounting for 1/2 of the number of bird species in Guangdong Province. After 65 years of careful protection, the forest coverage rate of Dinghu Mountain has remained above 98% for a long time, the main object of protection - monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest area increased by 50% compared with the first establishment of the reserve, the species diversity concentration is high, only the national key protected wild plants and animals reached 54 species and 59 species, respectively, by biologists called "species treasure house" and "gene repository".
Behind this, the rangers are indispensable. The patrol team of Dinghushan National Nature Reserve was established in 1956 and currently has 22 people on duty and is stationed at 8 management and protection stations. They endured the wind and the sun all year round, covered with frost and dew, slept on the mountain, guarded this mountain forest day and night, and witnessed the changes on the mountain.
15 years ago, Lai Xianlin joined the patrol team. "When I first started working, I had to clean up all kinds of traps when I patrolled the mountains, and I had to prevent some people from going up the mountain to cut down. Now, people's awareness of ecological protection is increasing, and this kind of thing rarely happens. Lai Xianlin said.
In the Tianhu Lake Scenic Area of the protected area, the reporter met Ms. Huang's family, who came to Dinghu Mountain from Nanning, Guangxi Province, and she sighed in unison: "It is not easy to preserve such a large piece of primitive forest in the city, it is really not easy!"
Open the world vegetation map, the Tropic of Cancer stretches on the desert belt, Dinghu Mountain is like an emerald embedded in it. 65 years ago, China opened the prelude to the construction of nature reserves in Dinghu Mountain; in the past 65 years, "relying on mountains to eat mountains" has gradually become "relying on mountains to protect mountains", especially since the Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the construction of ecological civilization has undergone historical, turning and overall changes from understanding and practice. By the end of 2020, 474 national nature reserves have been established across the country, and various types of nature reserves account for nearly 1/5 of the land area.
Huang Zhongliang told reporters that at the beginning of the establishment of the Dinghu Mountain National Nature Reserve, there were hundreds of nearby villagers with sharp axes and wanted to go into the mountains to cut down trees, "In that era, the villagers only knew that trees could light firewood and make fires. Now it is completely different, 'green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains' has become the consensus of the whole society. You see, Dinghu Mountain will be more and more liked by everyone!"