Herders key figures in plateau wildlife conservation

When a herder from the Lancang River source area of Three-River-Source National Park called to report that a snow leopard had killed one of his yaks, Li Xueyang expected tension.

Instead, when she and her colleagues reached the site in Angsai township, Zadoi county, Qinghai province, they found the snow leopard still feeding nearby. The yak owner stood watching calmly, having already reported the loss for compensation from his insurer.

"What I saw was not hostility toward the snow leopard, but a kind of closeness," Li said.

For Li, the scene captured a central truth about conservation on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau: protecting wildlife is not only about research, cameras and patrols.

It also depends on whether people living alongside wild animals can bear the cost of coexistence and share in its benefits.

Li has worked on wildlife research and community conservation in the plateau region since 2017. After receiving her doctoral degree from Peking University in 2023, she chose to remain in the source area of the Lancang River, much of it at altitudes above 4,000 meters.

"The place matched my imagination of the wilderness," Li said. On her first mountain trip, she saw pikas, marmots and blue sheep at close range. "The animals looked at us, and we looked back at them."

Li is part of a team from Peking University and the Shanshui Conservation Center that has worked in Angsai for more than a decade.