Chinese Nature Reserve Managers Train with Counterparts in Hawai‘i

Participants to Visit Hanauma Bay, Sunday, June 1

HONOLULU, HAWAI'I — May 29, 2008 — A group of 30 nature reserve managers and conservation officials from across China are currently in Hawai‘i wrapping up an innovative month-long training program during which they have been meeting with their counterparts at nature reserves across the United States to learn about conservation management strategies.

The trip marks the launch of the five-year China Protected Areas Leadership Alliance Project, a collaboration between the Chinese government’s State Forestry Administration, The Nature Conservancy’s China Program, The East-West Center in Honolulu, and Tsinghua University in Beijing.

“Sixteen percent of China’s land mass is now formally protected under nature reserves, many of which were created in just the last 10 to 20 years,” said Ian Dutton, Deputy Director of The Nature Conservancy’s Asia Pacific Region, who has been accompanying the group. “By global standards, that’s an impressive level of conservation, and the Chinese government is really committed to achieving their conservation objectives. This collaborative training project gives these conservation managers, many of whom have never been out of China before, a wonderful opportunity to ‘look under the hood’ of our national park system, to meet and learn from their peers, and to bring these experiences back to their own country.”

China conservation managers visit Waikamoi Preserve. © Mark White/TNC. Below, Wolong Pitiao Valley at Wolong National Nature Reserve, China. © Matt Durnin/TNC

“Protection of China’s vital watersheds, forests and other natural resources, along with some of the world’s most beautiful and historic landscapes, depends on the effective management of these protected areas,” said Carol Fox, Director of Strategic Planning and Partnerships at the East-West Center. “Our hope is that this project will provide vital assistance in developing the human capital that China needs to face this daunting challenge.”

In early May, the delegation of national and provincial conservation officials, along with managers of individual nature reserves, convened in Beijing for a week of classroom lectures and discussion presenting a global conservation overview and specific case studies on critical issues such as protected area design and management, the impacts of climate change and other key threats to biodiversity, ecotourism, and related legal issues and legislation. They then traveled to the U.S. mainland, where they visited nature reserves from New York’s Adirondack Mountains to Virginia’s Potomac Gorge and California’s Yosemite National Park, and heard presentations from fellow conservation managers on a broad variety of topics, ranging from emergency response and regulation enforcement to habitat management, staffing practices, park finance and community outreach.

In Hawai‘i, the group landed first visited on Maui, where they hiked in The Nature Conservancy’s Waikamoi Preserve and visited Haleakala National Park. On the last leg of their journey, they will be in Honolulu through June 3, meeting at the East-West Center to review what they have learned and discuss how to implement new strategies in their own reserves. On Sunday, June 1, they will also be visiting Hanauma Bay for a presentation on negative and positive eco-tipping points.

Among the participants in the program is the director of the 11,000-acre Songshan National Nature Reserve near Beijing, which the government is planning to showcase during the Olympics as a "conservation window" to the country's nature reserve system. Unfortunately, several of the participants were forced to leave the group after their reserves were affected by the devastating May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province, including the deputy director of the nation’s largest panda reserve, the Wolong National Nature Reserve, located near the quake’s epicenter.

The Nature Conservancy is a leading conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. To date, the Conservancy and its more than one million members have been responsible for the protection of more than 15 million acres in the United States and have helped preserve more than 102 million acres in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia and the Pacific. Visit The Nature Conservancy on the Web at www.nature.org.

The East-West Center is an education and research organization established by the U.S. Congress in 1960 to strengthen relations and understanding among the peoples and nations of Asia, the Pacific, and the United States. The Center contributes to a peaceful, prosperous and just Asia Pacific community by serving as a vigorous hub for cooperative research, education and dialogue on critical issues of common concern to the Asia Pacific region and the United States. Funding for the Center comes from the U.S. government, with additional support provided by private agencies, individuals, foundations, corporations, and the governments of the region. Visit the East-West Center on the Web at www.EastWestCenter.org.