China

International Teacher Trainer, Nalini Mohan, demonstrating activities from Pablo Python to Chinese educators

WCS began training Chinese educators in 1994 through a collaboration with the Education Commission of Yunnan Province. In 1997, the success of that effort led to an expansion of the program to four provinces under the auspices of China’s Ministry of Education (MOE). According to Chinese education officials, WCS's were the first foreign curricula invited into China’s schools on a wide scale. The MOE has acknowledged that WCS’s education program in China has brought the first environmental curriculum to Chinese schools, prepared the first Chinese professionals qualified to train their colleagues in environmental education strategies, and reached more than a hundred thousand students in four Chinese provinces.

Sichuan, Yunnan, Hubei, and Jiangxi have been chosen for their ecological richness and their acute need for environmental education. Sichuan is home to the majority of the Earth’s surviving giant pandas in the Minshan and Qionglai Mountains. Endemic pheasants, takin, golden monkeys, red pandas, and blue sheep are found in various Sichuan reserves, including the famous Wolong Reserve. Haizishan, with its spectacular alpine scenery and Xiaman marshes, China's largest peat swamp and main breeding area for black-necked crane and other wetland species, are also located in Sichuan Province.

China’s last tropical rainforests are located in Yunnan. Important species include: grey snub-nosed monkey, black concolor gibbon, Hume's pheasant, Asian elephants, and gaur. In Tongbiguan Reserve, the only reserve in China where sal forests grow (more typical of Myanmar and India), live hoolock gibbons.

Starr Fellow Liu Li (far right) teaches about teeth

Hubei guards the last dwindling population of Yangtze River dolphins.

Shennongjia, a rare example of extensive broadleaf and conifer forests, is a reserve known for golden monkeys and limestone pinnacles.

Jiangxi is the home of Poyang Lake, one of the most important wintering sites for migratory birds in China including the entire world's population of Siberian Cranes. Wuyishan, one of the highest mountains in southeast China, is another natural area of global importance according to a 1992 survey of protected areas in China conducted by WWF and Chinese environmental officials.

The primary school teachers and students in the program are using Pablo Python Looks At Animals, a WCS early childhood life science program designed to create positive attitudes about wildlife and habitats while developing students’ skills in science, language, arts and math. The middle school students are using another WCS-designed curriculum: Diversity of Lifestyles. 

In the coming years, WCS’s Education Division plans to build on this landmark program, bringing effective environmental materials and training to new critical audiences in China and other Asian nations.  Building on this idea, a workshop was held at the Shanghai Zoo in December 2004 that taught Pablo Python to over 30 teachers and introduced activities from the Teachers for Tigers curriculum.  Currently, WCS’s Education Division is working with the Shanghai Zoo to help it plan and implement summer camp programs based on those offered at the Bronx Zoo. 

Colorful lizards in a drama about territoriality

AREAS OF PROJECT ACTIVITY: Hubei, Jiangxi, Shanghai, Sichuan, Yunnan

CURRENT COLLABORATORS: Shanghai Zoo

YEAR INITIATED: 1993

TARGET AUDIENCE: Teachers; Zoos; Children