Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
But again, if we adopt the perspective not of the primeval wilderness that the first
pastoralists might have found thousands of years ago but of the realistic challenges
facing bear populations in any location occupied by people, they are not doing all that
badly. Admittedly nowhere common, brown bears can still be found in almost all the
major mountain ranges of western China, including the western portions of the Qilian,
almost the entire Kunlun, the Tangula and associated ranges, the Arjin Shan, and the Tian
Shan. Managing to have bears and people occupy the same space is not easy anywhere;
that brown bears have held on in this many places is really rather impressive. And with
the elimination of firearms from the general population, there are subtle (if admittedly
uncertain) indications that bears may be making a modest comeback.
What is needed now is not so much more protection as more intervention. Except only
in areas in which humans are present only as temporary visitors (an essentially nonexis-
tent land-use category anywhere in China), one cannot simply “protect” bears and expect
things to work out smoothly. Those who study and manage bears in other countries spend
a disproportionate amount of time and energy dealing with bear-human conflicts, and
with good reason: bears and humans come perilously close to occupying the same niche,
and neither gives way passively.
At the least, humans making their living among bears need to be provided with tech-
niques to minimize damage and educated in ways to avoid inadvertently training bears
to become constant problems. In the long term, it is probably in the interest of bear con-
servation that individual bears that have learned to associate humans with food rewards
be killed (if there is no practical way to retrain them), lest tolerance for their presence
disappear altogether. An active program to minimize problems, combined with occasional
removal of problem animals, is usually the price we must pay when asking for protection
of bears in general. But for the last two decades, Chinese laws and policy have implicitly
contained the following message for pastoralists: “Bears are precious and valuable animals
that belong to the State; the problems associated with living near bears belong to you.” A
future for bears in western China will require a more sophisticated approach.
DOING WELL, OR DOING TOO WELL?
Having by now concentrated on species that are rare, in decline, or vulnerable, I would
have painted an inaccurate picture if I did not also pay some attention to western Chinese
wild species that are doing quite well. One can learn as much about the problems and
potential of conservation by analyzing success as failure, and it would leave a seriously
erroneous impression if one only considered the species in trouble. There are species that
Chinese wildlife officials can (and should) take pride in, and for which Chinese wildlife
officials can (and should) develop more active systems to minimize the conflicts some-
times faced by humans due to the presence of these species when abundant. Failing to do
so would risk engendering intolerance of wildlife in general, which could, in turn, easily
thwart efforts those same humans need to take in order to conserve species that have not
enjoyed nearly so much success.
Of late, there are subtle indications that white-lipped deer, at times considered on the
Search WWH ::
Custom Search