Gang Chen

The Development of Sustainable Desert Communities and the Conservation of Wild Bactrian Camels in Xinjiang, China

A Wild Bactrian Camel Run in Western Lopnur Desert in Jan 2008.

Gang Chen-Desert-living castanches grow well at the root of a branchy tamarisk in Feb 2008.

Desert-living castanches grow well above the land surface in the field in March 2008.

Town/Region	Country	Categories	Date
Ruoqiang County	China	Asia, Mammals	3 Aug 2007

The increasing desertification is threatening the ecological environment and the IUCN listed critically endangered species wild Bactrian camels living mainly in Lopnur National Nature Reserve adjacent to the world’s second biggest flowing desert Takelamagan. The nearest county to the Lopnur National Nature Reserve is Ruoqiang county where farmers and herdsmen are making even great threats to the survival of the wild Bactrian camels. Raising sheep is a main business of income source for local communities. Feeding more sheep, many farmers and herdsmen bring their sheep into the adjacent Lopnur Reserve for extra wildly growing grasses and plants as forage, which are also very limited in stock to support the survival of about 500 existing wild Bactrian camels here. Furthermore, local people use directly wild grasses and wild trees as fuel for cooking because of the shortage of conventional energy such as coal, gas and electricity there.
　
In this project, my team is going to use our artificial planting technology of branchy tamarisks and desert-living cistanches and the methane pit technology to help local communities in order to solve the contradictions between conserving the wild Bactrian camels and developing sustainable rural communities in Ruoqiang county, Xinjiang.

After the successful implementation of this project, the grass-root initiatives and enthusiasm aroused by the achievements of my project will impose more positive influence on reversing desertification and turning more desert land into forested land with sustainable economic benefits. The traditional inefficient sheep-grazing business will be replaced gradually by the high-return business of planting branchy tamarisks and desert-living cistanches.

Without the harmful influence from the uncontrolled sheep grazing in the reserve, the ecological environment in the Lopnur wild camel nature reserve will be improved gradually, the natural supply of feeding plants for wild camels on its internal oasis and other places within the reserve will be preserved only for this endangered species of wild Bactrian camels (other wild species can’t live long here because of the extremely harsh desert environment) and the number of wild camels can then be maintained at the current level, the future reproduction of this species will also be sustained in consequence. A sustainable development pattern benefiting both the human being and the wild life will be realized eventually around the Lopnur nature reserve in Xinjiang.

For more information contact gang_chen_his@163.com

Project Update: May 2008

After the receipt of the Rufford small grant the late Aug, 2007, we had begun the purchasing work of 25000 branchy tamarisk seedling, 165 kg of desert-living cistanches seeds and methane pit construction materials. Since the beginning of Sep, 2007, we launched our proposed project awareness program among the targeted rural desert communities consisting of 77 families near the west border of the Lopnur Wild Bactrian Camel in Ruoqiang county by door to door visit and notebook computer aided portable presentation for a whole month.

From the beginning of Oct 2007 to the end of Dec 2007, my team distributed the branchy tamarisk seedlings and desert-living cistanches to each targeted family and direct and supervise their planting of branchy tamarisks and desert-living cistanches along the west border of the Lopnur Wild Bactrian Camel in Ruoqiang county. The whole covered area by our artificial planting is about 165 Mu. In January and February 2008, my team directed the 77 families to complete the methane pit construction and the education and training of the application technology of household methane among the targeted rural desert communities.

From this march on, my team has been supervising the care and management of the planted branchy tamarisk seedling, desert-living cistanches and the use of the methane pit in each benefited family. Things have been going well by now despite a few occasional technical difficulties experienced by these families. We are looking forward to see the great economic benefits and conservational benefits our project is going to bring to the targeted communities and the endangered wild Bactrian camels in the near future.

Final Report

Read more about the activities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.