Innovative measures are taken to protect Asian elephants in Yunnan
Asian elephants are the biggest and the most representative vertebrates in Asia. In China, they mainly live in Pu'er City, Lincang City and Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture of Yunnan Province and are important animal species in maintaining the balance of tropical forest ecosystem.
Basically, villagers and elephants live in the same area. Therefore they often clash with each other. To reduce the conflicts between them, local governments have segregated villages from these animals by tall and firm fences.
Thanks to the protection of the natural reserve, which is as large as 3528-km2, the number of Asian elephants in Yunnan has been doubled in the past three decades.
As these animals visit frequently the border areas between China and Laos, a series of protection measures have been jointly implemented since 2006 by the nature reserve in Xishuangbanna and the agriculture and forestry departments of Laos. And a joint nature reserve, which boasts an area of 200,000 hectares, was set up by the two sides to strengthen ecological protection.
Reporting by Cheng Sanjuan and Pu Jianbin; Photos by Chen Fei