Key restoration work will change nature reserve

Important restoration and reconstruction work will continue to be evident in the Tangjiahe National Nature Reserve in the coming two years, part of the efforts for the construction of China's first giant panda national park, which plans to "hang out its shingle" in 2020.

The national park, occupying an area of 27,134 square kilometers — three times the size of Yellowstone National Park in the United States — covers Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces, with 74 percent of the total area in Sichuan.

Located in Qingchuan county on the northern edge of Sichuan Basin, the Tangjiahe nature reserve is one of China's major giant panda habitats and is covered by the Sichuan part of the national park.

Hundreds of items of work are waiting to be done and one of them is to restore the vegetation on a hillside called Guanhu, said Li Mingfu, deputy director of the Tangjiahe nature reserve's administrative office.

Due to several natural disasters like earthquakes and rainstorms, a landslide covering 2.67 hectares took place on the Guanhu hillside, destroying many trees and grasslands. This is the largest site damaged by the geologic shifts, and there are also more than 10 smaller sites across the Tangjiahe reserve, all of which need to be restored, Li said.

Management capacity of the reserve also needs improvement. Some 28.1 million yuan ($4.06 million) has been invested to add 220 new outdoor garbage-sorting dustbins and construct three store rooms for fireproof materials, 80 new monitoring sites and 10 garbage classification and treatment rooms.

To ensure the maximum integrity of the Tangjiahe giant panda habitat, approval of construction projects in nearby villages and towns has been called off and existing projects that affect the surface ecology have or will be demolished, according to the provincial forestry department.

In Jiajiaba village, Qingchuan county, a fish farm — covering nearly 10,000 square meters — was filled last year. Producing high-quality fish, the farm used to serve as a jubaopen, or "treasure bowl", which offered good fortune to local villagers.

Fish farming has now been replaced by ecological planting and other more eco-friendly activities. "I have started keeping bees since last year, with annual income expected to reach 20,000 yuan, which is not less than breeding fish," said villager Li Changmin.

In the national park, giant pandas will be the major species under protection, as one of the park's main functions is to build passages between several panda habitats across the three provinces and help wild pandas living in isolation to mingle and strengthen their gene pool.

But, other kinds of animals, including snub-nosed monkeys, will also benefit, said Chen Limin, another deputy director of the Tangjiahe reserve's administrative office.

The reserve is now working on the ecological investigation and evaluation of habitats of these animals.