Threats to the Qinling Mountains

Qinling Mountains are a place of great beauty but they’re also densely populated by people.

This means that there is a real conflict about land-use. People need to grow crops but they’re fast running out of suitable places so they’re going further up the slopes into the mountains.

As a result, many creatures are becoming seriously endangered by the loss of their forest home as humans cut the trees to create agricultural land.

Panda islands
Qinling Mountains are not only rich in plants and animals, they are also rich in mineral deposits like gold and nickel. This means that there are a lot of mining operations in the region which in turns means more roads and clearing of trees.

One result of this construction of roads and development of infrastructure is that the forests get carved up into smaller pieces - islands - making it more difficult for animals such as the panda to travel from one area to another.

In an effort to stop this effect, WWF-China is busy facilitating the government to create new Panda Reserves and so-called “bamboo corridors” which would enable pandas to move from one forest region to another.

Logging in Qinling
Another great threat to the forests of Qinling Mountains has been the need for timber and fuel - and all forests outside protected areas are susceptible to commercial logging.

However in 1998, the Chinese Government took a great step forward by implementing a logging ban in the upper region of the two major rivers of China, the Yellow River to the north and the Yangtse river to the south. Says WWF-China’s Li Ning, “This means that the rest of the panda area will be covered by this natural forest protection system.”

Alongside the logging ban, WWF-China is working together with local populations who previously relied on the logging trade for their livelihood. “We are trying,” says Li Ning, “to develop alternative ways for people to bring in an income. If you don’t find solutions to these problems, people will go back to the forests whether it’s illegal or not because there is no other way to earn a living.”

Poaching
Another traditional way of making a living has been by hunting animals - either to eat or to sell for money. And although in most cases this practice is illegal, it still goes on - despite the fact that in 1995, a man was sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting a panda.

In many cases pandas are caught accidentally in traps set for takins - which are also protected species - or deer.