The sky was dark, and the cry of "Oh roar, oh roar" broke the tranquility of Pear Tree Village. Cao Xinggui knew that this was a reminder of the "black monkey" that it was going to rain.
In this small village on the border of Yingjiang in Yunnan, many people do not understand the value of the "black monkey", but they believe that it is a spiritual animal, "black monkey" is not like other monkeys who waste crops and bully livestock, they are active in trees all year round, almost never landing on the ground. Their cries are weather forecasts for farmers, and hunting them "brings bad luck."
Jin Mingfen, director of the Wildlife Protection Office of the Yingjiang County Forestry Bureau, said that some villages even worship "black monkeys" as gods.
Some bare hills cut off the coherence of gibbon habitat. The pictures in this article are all taken by The Paper's reporter Zhao Meng
As early as the 1970s, when the Wildlife Protection Law had not yet been promulgated and the level of protection of the "black monkey" had not yet been determined, the old president of Pear Tree Village set a rule that no one could kill the "black monkey", and the offender was fined 60 pounds of pork, 500 yuan. At the time, that amounted to a hefty fine.
In January 2017, the "black monkey" was identified as a new species and officially named the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon, the only species of ape named by Chinese scientists. The Gaoligong white-browed gibbon originally belonged to the Eastern White-browed Gibbon, and researchers have separated it from the Eastern White-browed Gibbon after taxonomic studies.
The Gaoligong white-browed gibbon belongs to the national level I key protected wild animals, mainly distributed in the China-Myanmar border area between the Nu River and the Irrawaddy River. According to a study released earlier this year, less than 20 groups of white-browed gibbons are preserved in the Gaoligongshan National Nature Reserve, with a population of 60-70, and other populations are distributed in Sudian Township, Zhina Township and Monkey Bridge Town in Tengchong County on the China-Myanmar border in Yingjiang County.
In recent years, with the improvement of animal protection awareness, in order to keep the habitat of the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon undisturbed, a large area of land around the forest has been abandoned, and the harvesting for daily life has also been restricted.
"We're the equivalent of a 'private protected area.'" Cao Xinggui said that the protection work has also squeezed people's production and life into a difficult corner. He is the leader of the Pear Tree Village group and the leader of the village.
Fortunately, with the establishment of the new name of the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon, the conservation work is also increasing. Jin Mingfen told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn) that the office had formulated a five-year protection plan for GaoLigong's white-browed gibbon earlier this year, which has now been reported to the Standing Committee of the Yingjiang County CPC Committee.
Jin Mingfen said that if the plan is implemented, it will be of great significance for the protection of gaoligong white-browed gibbons and for the improvement of the lives of people in nearby villages.
According to Yusheng Tiger, not far away is the habitat of the "black monkey", and these areas are shrinking.
The Black Monkey is upgraded to a new species
Although the first day was still sunny, Cao Xinggui knew that the reminder of "black monkey" and "oh roar, oh roar" would be fulfilled, he let his wife collect the clothes to dry at night, and the next morning, Pear Tree Village did usher in a light rain.
Lishu Village is located in the Mengga Village Committee of Sudian Township, Yingjiang County, more than 60 kilometers away from the county seat of Yingjiang, along the stone-paved village road, about two hours to reach this village with deep primary forest, more than 40 kilometers west of Myanmar.
The standard name of the "black monkey" is Gaoligong White-browed Gibbon, and the name has been around for less than a year.
On January 12, 2017, the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University, the Forestry Department of Yunnan Province and other units jointly held a press conference, and researchers believed that the eastern white-browed gibbon distributed in the Gaoligong Mountain region of China was a new species of gibbon, and named it Gaoligong White-browed Gibbon. It is also the only species of ape named by Chinese scientists.
Jin Mingfen, director of the Wildlife Protection Office of the Yingjiang County Forestry Bureau, introduced that the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon is mainly distributed in the China-Myanmar junction area between the Nu River and the Irrawaddy River, that is, the Nu River is bounded in the east and the Irrawaddy River and its upper reaches of the Enmeikai River in the west. In China, it is found only in Longyang District, Tengchong County, and Yingjiang County, Dehong Prefecture, in the southern section of Gaoligong Mountain west of the Nu River.
Yingjiang County is distributed in 20-22 groups of Gaoligong white-browed gibbons, accounting for half or even 2/3 of the total population of white-browed gibbons in China, and the protection of Gaoligong white-browed gibbons in Yingjiang County is crucial to the continuation of this species.
Pear Tree Village is located in the hinterland of Gaoligong's white-browed gibbon activity. People in the village are very familiar with this "black monkey", they are generally fifty or sixty centimeters long, the male is brownish black or dark brown, and the eyebrows have a tuft of white hair, which is very conspicuous; the females are mostly gray or grayish yellow, and the eyebrows are relatively light. The "black monkeys" jumped from one tree to another, almost never landing.
Gibbon habitat, ancient trees towering in the sky.
There is a local proverb, "The mole does not see the sun, and the black monkey does not go down the tree." Legend has it that moles and "black monkeys" once bet that if a mole ran to the ground, or if the "black monkey" fell to the ground, they would be cursed. Even when drinking water, it is said that the "black monkey" hangs a tail from a tree, hangs its body in the air, and then hangs its head to the spring.
The village is said to have migrated from the neighboring Fugong County for hundreds of years, and the people there are mostly Lisu. The Lisu people are relatively economically backward and have simple beliefs in some animals. Many of the Lisu people's villages are hidden in the mountains, and the cries of the "black monkeys" year after year are like a familiar neighbor, injecting vitality into the villages.
Cao Xinggui remembers that when he was very young, the old people told him that this animal was spiritual and could not be harmed. There was a verbal agreement in the village very early, such as someone hunting a "black monkey", fining 20 pork drags (local folk measurement unit, 1 drag is 3 pounds), a pot of wine (60 pounds), and rice 100 pounds.
In the 1970s, when the Wildlife Protection Law had not yet been promulgated and the level of protection of the "black monkey" had not yet been determined, Yu Shicai, the old president of Lishu Village, formulated a new management system, no one was allowed to kill the "black monkey", and the offender was fined 60 kilograms of pork, 500 yuan. At the time, that amounted to a hefty fine.
Unlike other "monkeys", this "black monkey" almost never destroys crops, let alone harms livestock. They live on wild fruits and are always shouting from afar in the woods near the village. For locals, these shouts mean that either it's going to rain or it's going to be sunny, or there may be something else going on in the village.
Cao Xinggui's home is located at the upper end of the slope of the village, and there are often "black monkeys" in the mountain forest about two kilometers away from the opposite side. Years of life experience have taught him that if the cry of "Oh roar" comes from the foot of the mountain before sunrise, it indicates that rain may soon come; if the cry comes from the top of the mountain after sunrise, it means that the clear weather will continue forever.
Lishu Village belongs to the alpine mountainous area, lack of artificial irrigation facilities, agricultural production stays in the stage of "relying on the sky to eat", the sound of "black monkeys" shouting, but also the nearby village to arrange livelihood "weather forecast". Cao Xinggui has been a farmer for nearly 60 years, and this experience has been tried and tested.
One morning last fall, before the sunrise was seen, the cry of "Oh roar" lingered at the foot of the opposite mountain for a long time. Cao Xinggui quickly reminded his friends near Menggang Village that the weather would change drastically and he seized the time to harvest rice. Soon, it rained for a week.
Opposite Cao Xinggui's house, gibbons are often infested, and its call is the weather forecast of the villagers.
Threat of habitat destruction
In the 1970s and 1980s, poaching was rampant, and many families had guns in their possessions. Monkey head is said to be a medicine that has a miraculous effect on treating headaches, and killings occur from time to time. At this time, the village rules play a certain binding role.
Around 1979, a foreigner poached a "black monkey", was caught by the villagers, and fined 150 yuan, which is equivalent to nearly 10,000 yuan now. In 1994, another "black monkey" was hunted and killed by people in the village next door, and the villagers agreed to fine 250 yuan, six cases of beer, and ten pounds of rice wine. However, the person refused to pay.
Later, Cao Xinghua, the leader of the Lishu Village group, led more than ten people to the door to pursue, and finally forced the other party to pay a fine.
In fact, the conflict between protection and development has long plagued the people of Pear Tree Village. Aside from poaching, the biggest threat comes from the destruction of their habitat by human activities. The forest area along the China-Myanmar border is large, and with the development of the economy, the scale of deforestation is getting larger and larger.
Yu Shenghu, head of the regulations unit of the Yingjiang County Forestry Bureau, told the surging news that GaoLigong white-browed gibbons generally occupy a territory in groups of three or five. When the cubs mature sexually, they are separated from their original group and breed in new territories. Extensive deforestation has led to a reduction in habitat area and a rupture of the living corridor belt, which directly endangers the population of the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon population.
Some bare hills cut off the coherence of gibbon habitat.
Many people in Lishu Village remember that when they were young, there were traces of a group of "black monkeys" in the nearby Kongjiawan, Wangjiazhai, Longduozhai and Maliba. But with the increase of human activities, several other villages today can no longer hear the cries of "black monkeys".
Yu Shenghu said that in recent years, the government has implemented a forest reform policy, and some forest land has been classified as state-owned collective forest land, and any logging is prohibited, which is beneficial to the protection of Gaoligong white-browed gibbons. In addition, many of the land around the forest are included in the policy of returning farmland to forest, or are approved to develop economic forest planting, which reduces the impact of human activities on the "black monkey" territory to a certain extent.
Not everyone supports these protection options. A few years ago, the village proposed that in order to protect the habitat of the "black monkey" from being disturbed, some cultivated land around the mountain forest should be stopped first, and then some government projects or compensation should be sought, but at that time, some people objected to "not planting land to eat anything."
Villager Cao Zhongcai's family has more than 20 acres of land to stop farming, accounting for half of the family's cultivated land, before the planting of corn and rapeseed here, after the suspension of the sudden decline in grain harvest, for a long time let the family's life into embarrassment. Cao Zhongcai's two children, one in high school and one in vocational school, he can only plant some grass and fruits, and then work some odd jobs outside to maintain the beginning of the family.
In some areas that are not classified as public welfare forests, commercial logging and charcoal harvesting are still legal. Since these areas are connected to the public welfare forest, this may lead to the blockage of the "black monkey" activity area.
The core territory of the "Black Monkey" near Pear Tree Village is a primeval forest of hundreds of acres, which has been designated as a public welfare forest. In early November, the surging news, led by local villagers, climbed from the foot of the mountain along the stream to the top of the mountain, where ancient trees towered in the sky, shaded by trees, and some unknown wild fruits could be seen everywhere.
After climbing to the top of the mountain for about an hour, I saw a different scene: on the bare mountain, only a few low trees were scattered, and not far away, the sound of the lumberjack working could be heard. YushengHu said that these blank woodlands cut off the active territory of the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon.
The ecological compensation of public welfare forests is increasing year by year. At present, the annual compensation of the public welfare forest in Lishu Village is about 46,000 yuan. Some villagers complain that the compensation for the public welfare forest is too low; in addition, some ordinary people who do not have a salary charcoal forest burn firewood in their daily lives and even need to buy it in other places, which makes them very embarrassed.
Some gibbon habitats have been zoned into public welfare forests and have been fenced around them.
The five-year protection "plan" has been submitted
At present, China has two protected areas for Gaoligong baimei gibbons, namely the national Gaoligong Mountain Nature Reserve and the Yunnan Provincial Yingjiang Tongbiguan Nature Reserve, with a total area of 158,000 hectares. But in terms of numbers, only half or less of the Current Gaoligong White-browed Gibbon live in the reserve.
How is the other half of the population protected?
Jin Mingfen, director of the Wildlife Protection Office of the Yingjiang County Forestry Bureau, introduced that in order to reduce people's deforestation and maximize the protection of the habitat of the Gaoligong Baimei gibbon, in 2015, with the support of the Animal Protection Organization Wildlife Conservation International (ffi) and the Yunnan Provincial Green Development Foundation, the Forestry Bureau of Dehong Prefecture and Yingjiang County implemented a plan to support the development of the community around the Baimei gibbon in the xiangbai village adjacent to Lishu Village, investing a total of 302,200 yuan to support 83 households and 83 new solar water heaters for the xiangbai village 82 acres of square bamboo were planted, and 2 forest stewards were added.
Jin Mingfen acknowledged that the coverage of these conservation efforts is limited. Fortunately, after the "black monkey" was identified as a new species and named gaoligong white-browed gibbon, the corresponding protection efforts were also increased.
Yingjiang County, as the region with the largest population of White-browed Gibbons in China, formulated a five-year conservation implementation plan in early 2017, namely the Implementation Plan for the Protection of the Population of Gaoligong White-browed Gibbons in Yingjiang County (2018-2022) (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan").
If the programme is implemented, it is expected to change the current situation of fragmented habitat and weak support from the people.
The surging news noted that according to the planning of the "plan", the comprehensive protection of the Habitat of gaoligong white-browed gibbons in the next five years will become an important task. The "plan" requires the design of ecological compensation, and the gibbon population distributed outside the protected area will be protected in situ in the village collective forest and commercial forest, so as to prevent the destruction of the coherence of the habitat of the white-browed gibbon, ensure population exchange, and promote the increase of the population of species.
Gibbon photo taken by villagers.
The "plan" shows that the distribution area of Gaoligong white-browed gibbon involves 2 townships, 6 villagers' committees and 20 natural village groups. Excluding some plantations and forests with no gibbon activity information and fragmented forests at higher altitudes, the natural forests with relatively primitive vegetation and linked to 9 areas with the distribution of the population of white-browed gibbons are included in the habitats of The White-browed Gibbon species in Yingjiang.
The habitat includes state-owned forests, collective forests and village commercial forests, with a total area of 156949 mu. In addition to the national public welfare forest and collective public welfare forest that already enjoys state compensation, there are 34,231 mu that belong to the gibbon activity area but are not included in the compensation.
From the planning map, the large woodland of Pear Tree Village is contained in the active habitat of Gaoligong White-browed Gibbon. This means that the bare hills opposite Cao Xinggui's home are expected to be connected with the core activity area of the "Black Monkey" and regain their vitality.
Jin Mingfen told the surging news that most of the villages with information on white-browed gibbon species in the surrounding areas have always had a tradition of spontaneous protection, and some are still worshipped as gods, and now the villages themselves also want to obtain benefits by protecting the Gaoligong white-browed gibbon species and promote the development of villages.
She said that some communities generally believe that if forests belonging to village collectives are included in ecological compensation, they will have a greater effect on reducing human activities, and that this part of public compensation can be used to set up activity rooms in villages to protect gibbons, increase and allocate activity room equipment, help establish community activity sites and repair and maintain the public infrastructure of the community.
Jin Mingfen said that the "plan" has been reported to the Standing Committee of the Yingjiang County CPC Committee, and after it is adopted, it will seek financial support from higher-level units as soon as possible.