On June 2, the "Wild Elephant Tour Group" finally advanced to Kunming, 500 kilometers away from its hometown, and a question was also put in front of everyone: Why do elephants "have a home and can't return"?
As one of the initiators of the "Green Peacock Conservation Action", Gu Bojian, a doctor at the School of Life Sciences of Fudan University who has worked in the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden for nearly 6 years, believes that the northward migration of elephants is not unrelated to the loss of native habitat. This, in turn, is related to the encroachment of cash crops such as sand kernels and rubber forests on the natural forests of Xishuangbanna, as well as the construction of hydropower stations to submerge the migration channels of elephants.
He also pointed out that the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve is a comprehensive protected area, and the object of protection is not only Asian elephants. Green peacocks, gibbons and other small animals should also receive sufficient attention in subsequent conservation efforts.
Observer Network: The recent northward migration of Asian elephants has once again aroused social concern in the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve. Previous large-scale planting of rubber trees in the local area has also been widely reported and subject to corresponding supervision. You have worked in Xishuangbanna for a long time before, can you introduce us to some problems that are more dangerous to the local environment but lack of exposure?
Gu Bojian: I would like to introduce two problems here, one is the cultivation of sand kernels, and the other is that the forest coverage rate has increased but the natural forest coverage rate has decreased.
First of all, it is a Chinese medicinal herb and can also be used as a spice. Since the 1990s, it is not only a protected area, xishuangbanna has many places with tropical rainforests, and from the air from the satellite point of view, it may still maintain the appearance of a tropical rainforest, but it is actually an empty shell inside.
What's going on? Because in order to grow sand kernels, all the young trees and herbs under the forest have been removed, because if these plants are not removed, they will compete with the sand kernels for sunlight and nutrients. After planting these sand kernels, it has led to the inability of the rainforest to be renewed, and it has also led to changes in habitat quality.
There is no research on the impact of sand kernels on Asian elephants, but it was a serious problem in protected areas.
The other is an increase in forest cover but a decrease in natural forest cover. This is actually a word game, because plantations are also forests, natural forests are also forests, and if you directly say that the forest coverage has increased, it includes plantations.
Over the past few decades, Xishuangbanna has extensively cut down tropical rainforests, even monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forests, to plant rubber trees, causing large areas of tropical vegetation to disappear. Basically, many of the hilly slopes below 900 meters above sea level, these areas where Asian elephants are more suitable for survival, including some resting places, are all planted as rubber forests. So not only is the Habitat of Asian elephants decreasing, but in fact, the area of tropical rainforests is also decreasing sharply.
In 2007, China Youth Daily reported on the large-scale deforestation of rubber trees in Xishuangbanna
In this case, the forest area has not actually decreased, or even increased. Why? Because rubber forests are also forests. But like a tropical rainforest, a monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forest, this is a natural forest.
Although the rubber forest is a forest, its species is quite single, and there are not many elephants that like to eat, and other animals like to eat. In the same area, there may be hundreds of species of plants in the rainforest, but in the rubber forest, there is only one plant. So the rubber forest has a nickname called green desert.
Observer Network: Has the local government strengthened supervision over the large-scale cultivation of cash crops just mentioned?
Gu Bojian: When the situation in the rubber forest was more exaggerated, it was actually 2003. As an important industrial raw material, the price of rubber and oil have soared at the same time after 2003. From 2003 to 2013, the decade was quite crazy, basically planting all the places outside the reserve, and even some suitable rubber places in the reserve, and even repeatedly broke through the limit of altitude.
In fact, below 900 meters above sea level is the area where rubber is more suitable for growth, and it is cold to go higher. As a result, it was crazy enough to break through this growth limit and planted to even 1500 meters, which led to the destruction of large areas of tropical and subtropical vegetation.
Nearby golden yellow is a rubber forest photo courtesy of the interviewee
But what I'm talking about now is a historical legacy, and the craziest thing is that decade. Probably after 2013, in fact, it is not allowed to plant, and now it is also very strictly managed.
But I watched the news before and exposed, because in recent years the price of tea has risen particularly badly, like the evergreen broad-leaved forest at an altitude of more than 1,000 meters has been cut down to plant tea trees, this is also quite a lot, but now it is also being rectified.
Observer Network: Banna's extensive rubber forests have seized the habitat of elephants, but these cash crops have also brought good economic benefits to the local area. In the face of the pressure of poverty alleviation, how can we balance economic development and environmental protection?
Gu Bojian: I think there should be reasonable planning. In fact, when planting rubber in large areas before, there was a lack of rational planning, which was a disorderly and chaotic state. As I said earlier, rubber was suitable for rubber below 900 meters above sea level, but at that time, even at 1500 meters above sea level, it was being planted.
What does this create? As a result, a large amount of woodland was used to plant rubber trees, and as a result, this rubber tree did not grow much for ten years, and it was still a small tree that could not cut rubber, so it was a waste of a lot of financial resources, and then it led to ecological destruction.
Surface situation inside the rubber forest Provided by the interviewee
Observer Network: According to the data we have consulted, the establishment of the Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve has improved the local natural ecosystem, and the number of wild Asian elephants has grown from 179 in the 1980s to more than 250 today. But in addition to elephants, there are actually many other wild animals living in the reserve. Can you tell us about other animals?
Gu Bojian: My main concern in the past few days is that there is a theory that Asian elephants are now mentioned, saying that the protected area is well protected, the protection effect of many years, the forest is restored, and then the elephants eat less before they run out.
However, this statement does not take into account the encroachment of cash crops such as sand kernels and rubber forests on the natural forests of Xishuangbanna, nor does it consider the fact that the construction of hydropower stations has flooded the migration channels of Asian elephants.
Sand kernels and rubber forests have just been mentioned, I said the lower hydropower station. Since 2007, because of the construction of the Lancangjing flood power station on the Lancang River, the water level has risen, resulting in the migration channel of the elephant herd being submerged, and their original living area has been blocked, and they can only operate in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture and Lancang County, Pu'er City, and have since been named "Lancang Menghai Elephant Group".
In addition, Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve is a comprehensive protected area, its protection objects are tropical rainforests, mountain rainforests, monsoon evergreen broad-leaved forests and many other tropical subtropical forest ecosystems and many rare and endangered wildlife, not specifically protected Asian elephants.
Elephants are big, well regulated, and now the publicity is in place, so they may be in a better position. The local fauna also includes Asian elephants, green peacocks, gibbons and more. To carry out conservation work in the future, we must also pay attention to the needs of a variety of animals.
I have been in Banna for so many years, and I have watched the ecology of Xishuangbanna deteriorate day by day, and there are fewer and fewer animals in the reserve, which is really very pessimistic.
In fact, there used to be tigers in the Banna Reserve, but in 2007 China took an infrared photo of an Indochinese tiger, and two years later the tiger was killed. Gibbons might have been 10 years ago, 20 years ago, but they were few and far between, and it was hard to find. You can check xishuangbanna white-cheeked gibbons, and green peacocks, which have not been seen for so many years.