Face to face丨What can we do for biodiversity? Interview with "Beaver Princess" Chu Wenwen
At the second phase of the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, Chu Wenwen, a Chinese youth representative born in the 1990s, made an online speech.
Chu Wenwen is known as the "Beaver Princess". When the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity was held in Kunming, my country last year, she spoke at the conference as a representative of the Altay Nature Conservation Association in Xinjiang. .
Building Habitat Homes for Beavers
The Mengxin beaver, a national first-class protected animal mentioned by Chu Wenwen in her speech at the Biodiversity Conference, is the only existing beaver population in my country. It is only distributed in the Altai region of Xinjiang, and the current number is less than 1,000.
More than 30 years ago, Chu Wenwen's father came to Altay as the first batch of graduate students who aided Xinjiang, and his main research was beavers.
Working with her father in the field since she was a child, Chu Wenwen not only became familiar with the living habits of beavers, but also understood the survival crisis they face.
In 2017, after graduating from Beijing Forestry University, Chu Wenwen became the editor of China Forestry Publishing House. After work, she felt confused when looking at the photos of wild animals she had taken.
Chu Wenwen:
At that time, I published a book "Chutong: My Wild Animal Friends and I", which was liked by many people, and even won the original award of the China Nature Book Award.
But I found it difficult for me to answer a question that the public often asks me, what can we ordinary people do?
In 2018, Chu Wenwen decided to use her actions to answer this question.
She quit her job in Beijing, returned to Altay, and founded the Altay Regional Nature Conservation Association with two friends.
Chu Wenwen:
We rescued a beaver, and we named it Baobao. After we rescued it, we just saw that there was a very, very deep cut on its forearm. We gave it medicine every day to see that it was getting better. One day it won't work.
We conducted an autopsy with the permission of the Forestry and Grass Bureau. The moment the scalpel was pierced into its abdominal cavity, pus erupted like a volcano. It was very sad. At that time, I hugged my head and cried, saying that Why is there no rescue center?
If we could have done a detailed and careful inspection at that time, the final result might not have been that way, and because there was no animal hospital in the Altay area at that time.
After those few days, I have been thinking, what can we do for these lovely wild animals, who like me have lived in Altay since I was a child?
The death of this Mengxin beaver made Chu Wenwen understand that only scientific methods and mechanisms can be used to protect beavers, which requires the participation of more people, including local herdsmen.
Chu Wenwen:
It was actually quite interesting at the beginning. As soon as our car drove into the wild, the herdsmen surrounded us. After they surrounded us, they "teared" us off the car, saying that your beavers Our sunflowers and alfalfa are gone again.
They wouldn't say that they killed the beaver just because they ate sunflowers, but because they didn't know how to kill them, they would think why they ate mine. There was that kind of anger and inability to express that kind of thing.
The protection of Mengxin beavers depends on their harmonious coexistence with humans. Chu Wenwen noticed that beavers have strict requirements on habitats and will only choose places with sufficient food resources to make their nests, and their most important source of food is natural Shrub willows with smaller and smaller areas.
Chu Wenwen invited professors from Beijing Forestry University to conduct a comprehensive survey of the 725-kilometer-long Ulungu River Basin, and determined that there are 410,000 shrub willows missing.
To this end, she and her partners launched the public welfare project "Beaver Canteen" on the Internet to plant shrubs and willows for beavers.
According to their calculations, it will cost about 2.24 million yuan to plant 410,000 shrub willows.
Chu Wenwen:
At the beginning, the survival rate was about 30%, and the remaining 70% died.
Reporter:
Why is it like this, 70% will die?
Chu Wenwen:
It was because there was too much sunlight, no shade, and the water evaporated and lost too quickly. In the end, we finally understood what kind of wind direction to choose, which section of the river to choose, what kind of soil it should be, and what kind of soil it should be. What kind of technology needs to be used, how many layers of mulch, whether to use single-drip irrigation or double-drip irrigation, what equipment to use to pump water, and how often to plant after pumping, just planting trees in the past four or five years, but let me study and understand.
In order to get more people to donate trees, Chu Wenwen opened an account on Douyin. In addition to updating her own animal protection videos, she also tried to broadcast live broadcasts to beaver babies.
On the basis of not disturbing the living environment of the beavers, Chu Wenwen and her partners used three large surveillance cameras to broadcast live the entire area where the beavers live.
Thanks to the popularity of Beaver's live broadcast, more people know about the "Beaver Canteen" project: a bottle of Coke can plant one tree, a cup of coffee can plant six trees, and a meal of fried chicken can plant ten trees.
The generosity of millions of netizens has turned into a little bit of fresh green on the riverside.
After four springs, 410,000 shrub willows donated through the "Beaver Canteen" project meandered along more than 700 kilometers of river banks, providing more food and habitat for beavers.
Chu Wenwen:
This is actually a very, very powerful thing. It is a national first-level key protected animal. The number has increased by 100. It is not only that the number has increased by 100, but it is equal to more So many habitats, those habitats can help it survive better.
The 197 families have increased by 35 families. These 35 families are equivalent to the fact that we have built 35 new habitats for it, so that it can live in this habitat.
Reporter:
What about the growth rate of shrub willow that matches it?
Chu Wenwen:
We have planted 620,000 trees now, but we haven’t spent the money we raised to plant the 410,000 trees. So as long as we have money next year, we will continue to plant.
While planting trees, we must find ways to balance the relationship between beavers and local herdsmen.
This is the sixth herdsman's home that Chu Wenwen visited this spring.
When a herdsman finds a beaver, she will use the income from the beaver live broadcast to buy a cart of pasture, subsidize the possible losses of the villagers, and persuade the herdsman to become a "beaver herdsman guardian".
Because the shrub willow by the river is also the favorite food of cattle and sheep.
Chu Wenwen:
If the herdsmen were not our "partners", their cattle and sheep would have eaten up the shrubs and willows since then.
But it’s different now. Everyone knows that we need to protect these shrub willows. We need to keep these shrub willows alive so that the beavers can live. If the beavers live, our environment will be better and our income will be higher!
We have cultivated 500 local aborigines for nature protection. They accepted our kindness little by little and became our workers and rangers. They were able to change their income structure and even increase their income.
Establish a professional rescue center for wild animals
On the video platform, Chu Wenwen posted a story about a retired squad leader.
The old squad leader used to be a ranger and has been guarding a family of beavers who are trapped in the pasture every winter.
For three years, he has pulled the cart and walked 8 kilometers every day to deliver food to them.
Seeing that the beaver couple had two beaver babies.
But one day, Chu Wenwen suddenly received a video from the old squad leader: he was kneeling in the ice and snow, holding a dead baby beaver in his arms, and kept wiping away his tears.
Chu Wenwen:
When the old monitor’s brood of beavers died, I really felt sorry for the old monitor and the beavers.
I am like the old squad leader Huyou every year. Every winter when the beaver nest is still there, I go to the old squad leader’s house to hold the old squad leader’s hand, and I tell the old squad leader: Old squad leader, the last day of this year It's been 20 years, you take good care of it this year, next year I will definitely take it to the rescue center.
But the real "Xiaomian" family didn't wait until that time, so I was very sad.
The litter of beavers that the old squad leader took care of became a pain for Chu Wenwen, and it also made her determined to promote the implementation of the "Beaver Ark" public welfare project, not only to build a rescue center for beavers, but also for all wild animals in the Altay region.
Reporter:
What kind of strength did you gather to open this rescue center?
Chu Wenwen:
At that time, I thought we could have a large factory like that, at least we would not have to suffer from hunger or cold.
The weather here in Xinjiang is cold, but we can burn stoves and coal, which can help beavers survive.
Then we launched a project. Soon after launching this project, everyone was very supportive. Those who have money contributed money, and those who were powerful contributed. We quickly raised hundreds of thousands, and we were ready to build this rescue center. It also includes what equipment to buy. If we have digital X-ray photography, we can take pictures of the internal structure. If we have blood routine, we can take blood tests for animals, and put in a series of biochemical and B-ultrasound.
After I took the plan, the secretary saw that we wanted to save beavers, we wanted to save wild animals, and we wanted to purchase equipment.
The secretary said, there are so many things, how can you do well with hundreds of thousands of dollars?
He said let Fuyun County come to help you.
Fuyun County took out a piece of land, which was an old waterworks, and matched the entire planning institute to help with the design.
The secretary said: Since you want to save the beavers again, although I don't know how to do it, I think that if it is good, they should not be put in one space, maybe they should be divided into different houses.
Reporter:
Here I met another true fan of wild animals.
Chu Wenwen:
Yes, I said you are too knowledgeable, Secretary, I said we share one point.
I said I might need an aviary, a animal house, a beaver house.
The secretary said: No problem, fix it.
Inexplicably, we changed from building a small bungalow to owning a relief center covering an area of 2,000 square meters, with a usable area of 2,600 square meters.
The old squad leader finally didn't have to drag the cart to deliver food to him anymore.
In the winter of 2021, the first professional wildlife rescue center will be put into use in Fuyun County, Xinjiang.
When wild animals are injured, treatment and rehabilitation can be provided here to help them return to nature.
So far, Chu Wenwen has 11 colleagues, nearly 500 local herdsman patrols, and 260 volunteers for the online Beaver live broadcast.
Reporter:
What you are doing, whether it is the "Beaver Canteen" in the past or the "Beaver Ark" now, what do you think has changed the most with the strength of the team around you?
Chu Wenwen:
We changed from 3 people back then to 2 million people. This is really a surge in the number of people. Now I feel very, very confident.
In my mind, people and wild animals are not people giving way to nature, or nature giving way to people.
We should understand how wild animals live in their world, and how we humans live in the human world. When these two circles intersect, we will not forcefully say that we want to Put this circle completely on this circle, and the two of them will overlap, but they will also be separated. I think this is the best look in my mind.
(CCTV news client reporter丨Wang Ning)