Festival feeds font of fauna and flora

The Dayao Mountains range is one of China's most important sites for discoveries of fauna and flora.

As early as the 1920s, scientists began exploring the mountains, which are located in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Many animals and plants were first recorded in the mountains, and their type specimens were collected there.

As a result, one can often find Dayaoshan, or "Dayao Mountain", in the Latin names of many animals and plants.

"The first Chinese bird named and published by a Chinese scientist was found here," said Tan Haiming, deputy director of administration at the Dayao Mountains National Nature Reserve in Guanxi's Jinxiu county.

"It was the golden-fronted fulvetta, a warbler-sized bird only found in China."

More than 2,200 plants and nearly 500 vertebrates, including nearly 300 bird species and 54 animal species, are distributed across the reserve, Tan said.

Founded in 1982, the facility was upgraded to a national reserve in April 2000, placing about 800,000 hectares of land under State protection.

The reserve employs about 70 rangers to manage 17 patrol stations and spots scattered around the facility, according to Tan.

"Their work includes regularly patrolling the reserve, monitoring fauna and flora along the routes, preventing human impact and visiting nearby communities to raise local people's environmental awareness," he said. He added that the rangers' efforts have resulted in poaching becoming scarce within the reserve.

Tan noted that the small-leaved Buddhist pine, aka the Chinese yew, was added to China's List of Wild Plants under State Priority Conservation in September.

"It was upgraded to a plant under level two State protection," he said. "Any poaching of the tree will be investigated as a crime."

He said he isn't worried about the pine trees anymore but is still vigilant about any signs of new surges in demand for other wild plants. "Market demand can easily turn a common wild plant into a rare one," he said. "You never know when a new threat will appear."

He and two colleagues joined the three-day Dayao Mountains Bird-watching Festival, which was held in the county in October.

They regarded the event as a good way to survey the birds distributed across the area and promote awareness of protection among the local population.

The festival, during which a record 188 bird species were witnessed or heard by participants, added several birds to the reserve's checklist, Tan said.