Challenges remain

Despite the recent ecological improvements, Lhundrub admitted that the reserve still faces a number of challenges, the greatest being flaws in the legal system.

"As an organization, we don't have the power of law enforcement. Sometimes we can use nothing but persuasion against illegal acts," he said.

He suggested that an integrated platform should be established to coordinate different departments, such as ecological protection organizations, tourist authorities and local governments.

Lhundrub added it's difficult for his 18-member team to look after the entire reserve. The members are often scattered across six workstations, and they face a number of difficulties, including a lack of training and insufficient funding for the promotion of ecological protection. Moreover, few of them understand the local dialect, so they can't mix with the local residents.

Local community coordinators, drawn from different ethnic groups and backgrounds, such as herders, monks and nuns, patrol the reserve to prevent and report illegal dredging, poaching, fishing and construction projects.

"We repay them by providing assistance in the form of building roads, libraries or water points for the communities," Lhundrub said, adding that it's difficult to attract and retain professional research personnel.

"There are no professional veterinarians for wild animals, and in many cases we can only seek out a local 'barefoot' vet to treat them," he said.

Although 47 Przewalski's gazelles have been artificially bred in recent years, they haven't yet been introduced to the wild.

Since 2005, the reserve has carried out scientific cooperation with a number of institutes with research programs in the reserve, such as CAS and Tsinghua University.

"It's a good way for us to learn from the country's top scientific teams and quickly improve our research ability," Lhundrub said.

Contact the writers through [email protected]