Haiguo Dialog：Sun grows to be eco-ambassador in photographing birds

West Yunnan’s Dehong Dai and Jingpo autonomous prefecture is one of the Chinese areas with a highest degree of biodiversity. It is dubbed as China’s Amazon, a plant kingdom and a gene bank for species.

Dehong prefecture houses 1,000 vertebrate species, 716 recorded bird species, 215 animals under state protection, and 6,046 higher plants.

In the 10th COP15 talk, we have Sun Xiaohong, ambassador to Dehong eco-publicity and planner of the book Hand-Painting of Birds in Dehong. Mr. Sun will share with us his encounters with birds.

Q: Welcome to our show, Mr. Sun! Hand-Painting of Birds in Dehong is the first Chinese-bird book equipped with the augmented reality (AR) technology. So what did you do in publishing the book?

A: In planning and publishing Hand-Painting of Birds in Dehong, I was involved in quite a few steps, such as picture collection and hand painting. The book is mostly about rare bird in Dehong. To capture a bird species unique to Dehong’s Yingjiang county, I have been on the trail of them since 2014.

Q: What’s the role of this book in protecting the diversity of bird species?

A: The book has made Dehong prefecture better known to people in China and beyond. Publication of the book has boosted confidence among conservationists, including eco-photographers, writers and volunteers.

Q: As an eco-photographer, how do you think will COP15 change our thinking on the man-nature coexistence in harmony?

A: As an eco-photographer, I think COP15 will remind all of us of conveying love to nature in a true, good and beautiful way. To me, I’d take more beautiful pictures of China and Yunnan, telling the public more about my photography experiences.

By Gateway reporters