Conservationist earns his wings

While filming a documentary about bird protection in 2016, Sheng Kai worked alongside forest rangers in Xinhua county, Hunan province, helping to dismantle bird traps in the mountainous area. When they had just finished saving a sparrow from one of the nets, with a sound of gunshot, an Amur falcon, an animal under national second-level protection, fell to the ground in front of them. With shock and rage, they looked around for the criminal, spotting a vague figure, holding a rudimentary firearm, running away in the distance. Due to the complicated mountainous terrain, the poacher managed to evade capture.

The encounter left a deep impression on Sheng. He had been protecting birds for several years as a volunteer, but it was only after seeing with his own eyes how birds were hurt by people, that he realized he still had a long way to go.

In 2014, Sheng joined a bird protection camp at university, and did some publicity work, including going to mountainous villages to educate local people on why catching birds was bad for the ecosystem and helping raise awareness that hunting birds was illegal.

Upon graduating from the Central South University of Forestry and Technology in 2017, the young man took a less-traveled career path, choosing to work at an environmental protection organization in Hunan and help in the effort to protect birds and other animals.

Hunan is a waypoint on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, which is one of the world's nine main routes for migratory birds. The Luoxiao and Xuefeng mountains are important channels for such migration, and Dongting Lake serves as a critical wintering habitat for birds along the route.

Over a decade ago, the hunting of migratory birds was prevalent in the area. Sheng learned from a documentary he watched in 2013 that, in one day, as many as 10,000 birds could be caught. In 2016, when he hiked on the Luoxiao Mountain, he could still see traces of bird hunting.

"I wandered on the mountain, and saw some ranges were bare. The grass had died due to the frequent visits of hunters. I could see the circle where they had set bonfires, and the caves they used as shelters," says Sheng.

After joining the Ecological Protection Volunteer Services Federation of Hunan Province in 2017, he participated even more in bird protection. He promoted the establishment of a four-tier system, which has groups from the provincial, county, and village levels and volunteers working together to protect birds.

Volunteers patrol the local area, dismantle nets and traps people set to catch birds, report to the police when they find evidence of illegal activity, and disseminate information on bird protection to local people through leaflets and brochures. According to Sheng, there are currently 56 groups all over Hunan, with more than 5,000 volunteers in total.

"Most of them are local people in their 40s to 60s, including farmers, fishermen, bird photographers and retired teachers. University students also join during their vacations," says Sheng.

He mentions the importance of the volunteers. "The mountainous area of Hunan is really large, and forest rangers cannot supervise every inch. Sometimes when they receive a report of illegal bird-hunting activities, it may take them two to three hours to reach the spot. Volunteers are local people, who can stop such activities near their homes. That is more convenient."

They have worked closely with the local government. "When volunteers find situations they cannot deal with, they send messages to the local bureau. They then receive feedback from the authority, which encourages the volunteers a lot," says Sheng.

"For volunteers who don't receive income or subsidy, they still like to join up, because they feel that they can really play a role in protecting the environment of their hometown," he adds.

Sheng, now working as the secretary-general of the federation, works to coordinate the work of the volunteers. He notes that with the system becoming more mature, it operates well. "We have become an important social force to protect birds in Hunan," says Sheng.

He has witnessed the result of the organization's protective efforts. "In 2012, there were still many people hunting birds with homemade blunderbusses or poison, and now there are fewer such attempts. Much fewer people try to catch birds, and some blinded by greed now resort to less harmful ways like spreading nets and setting traps. Anti-hunting signs have been erected extensively, and local people all know it's illegal to do so," says Sheng.

According to statistics released by the Forestry Department of Hunan province, the number of wintering waterbirds around Dongting Lake reached about 288,000 in 2020, from 184,000 in 2016.

He Jianjun, executive deputy director of the federation, praises Sheng's work. "He manages volunteers, not our employees. That's not easy. He needs to generate a binding force within the group so that volunteers want to be engaged with the cause. He must also consider how his management can help to protect the environment. That means balancing many things."

In recent years, Sheng has also led his team to clamp down on illegal fishing and illegal trade in wild animals, and helped publicize the prosecution of such cases in an effort to enhance people's awareness of protecting the ecosystem.

According to Sheng, many people love fishing. They are allowed to fish with one fishing rod and one fishhook, but sometimes one person uses many rods and hooks to fish, and that is illegal according to a legislation on fishing in the drainage area of Yangtze River released by the Standing Committee of Hunan Provincial People's Congress on Dec 3.

The federation prosecuted three people who caught more than 900 kilograms of fish in Xiangjiang River during the closed fishing season between September 2020 and February last year. After weighing the harm on the local ecosystem, they received a suspended sentence of more than a year in prison and were ordered by the court to supply 10 tons of young fish to the river and hand over the income generated by their illegal actions.

Some people buy wild animals to raise as pets, but that may lead to the destruction of the local ecosystem, by not only removing them, but also introducing unwanted pets procured elsewhere to the ecosystem, as the latter may be invasive "alien" species. What's worse, unknown viruses may be spread to the human population via zoonotic transmission. Sheng's federation has issued many lawsuits on these behaviors as well.

Over the years, Sheng has led a busy lifestyle. "We don't have many people, but there are so many things to do. Therefore, one person needs to be responsible for many things," says Sheng.

He, the federation official, says it's not easy for a young person like Sheng to work in environmental protection for long periods. "They cannot earn much money in an environmental organization, and they need to work overtime as the job is demanding. Some people may enter the career with passion, but most of them quit in less than three years."

But Sheng says it's exactly the work he wants to do. "I always believe people like me have many things to do in this line of work. I can see my work really making a difference. That makes me continue with even greater passion."