Planned tiger reserve hits a hiccup

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(Shanghai Daily) 14:22, August 09, 2013

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Plans for a Siberian tiger reserve in Heilongjiang Province have hit a snag as the reserve could pose a threat to the local beekeeping industry, forestry authorities said.

With the number of Siberian tigers in Russia approaching saturation in recent years, wild tigers have tended to migrate to northeastern provinces in China, where environmental conditions are favorable for the animals.

China and Russia are cooperating on the construction of a cross-border eco-passage that would connect planned tiger reserves in the two countries and expand their habitat so that they can roam freely.

The eastern part of the Wanda Mountains in Heilongjiang is slated for the tiger reserve in China, according to the plan. Only about 500 Siberian Tigers live in the wild with about 12 in Heilongjiang and eight to 10 living in neighboring Jilin Province.

The planned tiger reserve is scheduled to cover 202,000 hectares. However, 190,300 hectares will overlap a black bee nature reserve, according to sources with the province’s Dongfanghong Forestry Bureau.

Covering about 1.22 million hectares, the black bee nature reserve in Raohe County, Shuangyashan City, was developed as a state-level nature reserve in 1997 in a bid to protect the area’s black bees and plants that secrete nectar.

Zhang Shusen, director of the wildlife protection department of the Heilongjiang Provincial Forest Industry Bureau, said the tiger reserve requires some land from the black bee nature reserve.

Sources said the reserves can not coexist. If the tiger reserve is built, the black bee nature reserve would lose about 15.5 percent of its total area, they said.

Authorities for the bee reserve have thus far refused to give up any land.

Li Changchun, deputy director of the management bureau of the bee reserve, said he supports the construction of the tiger reserve but added many local people make a living from the beekeeping industry.

The area’s beekeeping industry has existed for several decades and has brought significant profits to residents, Li said.

Russia finished construction of a state-level Siberian tiger reserve within its territory last year and has urged China to build its reserve in the eastern Wanda Mountains.

Ma Jianzhang, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering who does research on wild animals, said the planned Siberian tiger reserve offers the most favorable habitat for the animals.

Ma said the eco-passage for the tigers would create several benefits for the animals

He said it would solve a food shortage problem that the big cats face in Russia, while mating between tigers from both countries would boost the population of the endangered species and improve the gene pool.

But wildlife protection experts have yet to figure out a way for the black bee and the Siberian tiger reserves to coexist.