The Nature Conservancy in Colorado - Colorado: China Conservation Connections

Enlarge this map to see the projects Charles will be supporting in China.

Watch a video of Charles explaining his cross-border assignment .

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Write Charles with your own questions about local to global connections between Colorado and China.

Colorado Conservation in China

Colorado State Director Charles Bedford is headed to China—and you can read all about his cross-border conservation journey here.

For a year, Bedford will be on the ground in Bejing, learning as much about conservation as he has to teach.

While in China, Bedford will apply his expertise to one of the Conservancy’s most ambitious conservation projects as it develops a blueprint for a new national park system within China and works with the Three Gorges Dam Company to preserve, as much as possible, the natural flows of the mighty Yangtze River.

Bedford’s global undertaking isn’t unusual at the Conservancy – several Colorado staff and trustees have spent significant time supporting conservation in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean over the past decade.

Join the Conservancy's online community and follow Charles as he explores conservation connections between Colorado and China.

June 17: The Journey Begins
I write to you with visions of the Orient swirling in my head, having just returned from an inspiring week working with The Nature Conservancy’s program in China. In July, I’ll bring my family with me to Bejing, where we’ll live and work for a year.

July 15: What I See Around the Corner
My first two weeks on the ground in China have been quite an adjustment. I sometimes feel like Joseph Conrad's character Kurtz: plucked from the Congo, equipped with an MBA and sent to the set of the movie Bladerunner.

July 22: Thinking Beyond "Paper Parks"
This problem of having "paper parks," or parks in name only, is not unique to China—many of the world's countries have designated parks or protected areas that show up only on maps and not on the ground, lacking adequate enforcement against illegal logging, poaching or other destructive uses.

August 12: Supporting Sustainability on Sulawesa
There are 30-foot snakes here that occasionally eat people, a two-foot ungulate that looks like a newborn bison when it's fully grown, and a chicken-sized bird that lays an egg as big as itself in a sand hole next to hot springs and volcanic fumaroles.

October 5: Yellowstone in China?
How are U.S. perceptions of China sadly out of date? One example lies in how China’s first national park was created. China has over 2,500 nature reserves, but had no national parks until a few years ago. So The Nature Conservancy worked with the Yunnan provincial government and the Diqing county governor to create China’s first national park — Potatso (Pudacuo) National Park.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Chris Pague/TNC (Charles explores Mongolia on horseback); Photo © Scott Warren (Meili Snow Mountain Range in Yunnan Province, China); Photo © Tamera Bedford (journey begins); Photo © Tamera Bedford (Charles' ride to work); Photo © Ami Vitale/TNC (Chinese Nature Reserve); Photo © Charles Bedford/TNC (Charles in Indonesia); Photo © Scott Warren (Shudu Lake in Pudacuo National Park, Yunnan Province, China).