WCS Russia/China Transboundary Project

WCS in Northeast Asia

Positioned at the crossroads of the Asian, Himalayan, and boreal ecoregions, the Sikhote-Alin Mountains of the Russian Far East and East Manchurian Mountains of northeast China host a unique array of plants and animals found nowhere else in the world. It is a place where the northern brown bear meets the Himalayan black bear, the Asian sika deer meets the temperate red deer, and where two magnificent Asian cats, the tiger and the leopard, coexist with the wolf and the lynx of the boreal forest.

The Human Aspect
On the Russian side of the border, exploitation of natural resources is considered vital to rescue the country from its lingering economic woes. On the Chinese side, local people historically have relied heavily on forest products for their livelihoods. Therefore, while strict protection of core areas is key to recovery and successful management of wildlife, complementary management strategies that provide for the needs of animals and local people are essential.

Threats
While Amur tigers number around 330-370 adults, the last Far Eastern leopard population is in imminent danger of extinction with only 25-30 remaining.  Habitat loss, due primarily to intensive logging, and poaching of prey currently limit the growth in transboundary tiger and leopard populations. Tigers and leopards are also poached directly for their fur and for the use of body parts in Traditional Chinese Medicine. They are also seen as a threat to domestic livestock. Because these large carnivores cross the international boundary, cooperation from both governments is key to their survival. 

WCS Activities
Building on the continuing work of the Siberian Tiger Project in Russia, surveys organized by WCS staff in 1996 (Russia), Jilin Province China (1998), and Heilongjiang Province China (1999) laid the groundwork for developing a plan for a network of transboundary protected areas and management zones.  WCS is now working with Chinese and Russian governmental agencies and wildlife specialists to make this a reality. Based on survey results and recommendations from a workshop organized by WCS, China’s Jilin Province was established with financial assistance from WCS in 2000 and the Hunchun Tiger-Leopard Reserve in 2001. This reserve provides about 100,000 ha of protected habitat for tigers and leopards contiguous with protected habitat on the Russian side of the border in Borisovkoe and Barsovy protected areas.  WCS has already provided training workshops for new reserve staff, and is working with Hunchun Reserve and other sponsors to bring education and compensation programs to villagers who lose cattle to depredating tigers.  In February, 2002, Fenghuangshan Reserve was upgraded to the provincial level in Heilongjiang, with the intention of creating a federal reserve in this area as soon as legally feasible. Efforts are now underway to convert these protected areas into a transboundary network. Workshops bringing both Russian and Chinese managers have paved the way for this next crucial step. 

Important Next Steps
We have initiated great momentum and change in the region, which we hope to capitalize on with important future steps towards recovery of these endangered species, including:
· Creation of a federal-level reserve in the Wandashan Mountains of Heilongjiang.
· Upgrading the status of Hunchun Tiger Leopard Reserve to the federal level.
· Outreach into villages surrounding Hunchun Tiger Leopard Reserve, including incentives for supporting the reserves by local villagers.
· Formal creation of a unified transboundary protected area with UNESCO or other international support.
· Secure movement corridors for tigers, leopards, and their prey between Russia and China.
· Convert the existing compensation program for Chinese farmers suffering depredation of livestock by tigers into a government-sponsored program to insure long-term sustainability.