Honghu Lake ‘bird man’: From hunter to protector
Print Edition
ZHANG Shengyuan is a “bird man.” The 57-year-old lives in a double-decker boat inside the Yangchaihu section of Honghu Lake in central China’s Hubei Province.
Every day, he patrols the lake in a canoe, watching birds and noting species and population numbers, and, more importantly, protecting them against hunters.
However, more than a decade ago, Zhang was a poacher himself, probably among the best. In 2001, Zhang and his villagers secretly prepared 23 shotguns to hunt birds, but he was nabbed by local officials on site. He was fined 18,000 yuan (US$2,830), more than his total annual income.
Zhang said at the time he had no choice but to hunt birds. In the 1990s, Honghu Lake, the seventh largest lake in China, was nothing but a giant, stinking fish pond.
Propelled by the soaring price of crab, people flocked to Honghu to farm freshwater crabs. Extensive crab cultivation took up as much as 70 percent of the lake area, with bamboo poles and nets protruding all over.
Zhang and some of his relatives also jumped on the bandwagon. To intensify crab production, they threw everything from food leftovers to processed fish feed into the pond, which quickly eroded the lake’s ecosystem.
A few years later, the crab boom went bust and so began Zhang’s bird-hunting career.
Zhang said he would have never resorted to killing birds had there been other means of earning bread. The Zhangs have been living along Honghu since his great-grandfather.
He still vividly remembers the beautiful scenery from his childhood, when flocks of wild geese would cloud the sky.
However, the massive crab cultivation destroyed the lake’s ecosystem so much that few migratory birds could be seen when Zhang first aimed his gun at a wild duck near his home in 2000.
When he was caught, Zhang finally realized the damage they had inflicted on the lake.
In 2003, the Hubei provincial government launched a Honghu Lake wetland reserve restoration project. The local government decided to recruit crews to patrol the lake. Zhang was the first to sign up.
Over the years, people occasionally joined Zhang in his patrols. But eventually they left because days on the lake with no one but birds and fish seemed tedious and lonely.
But Zhang has stayed. The work is both redeeming and fulfilling for him. “I think the birds can recognize people. Truly. At least, they know me,” he said, his face wrinkling with joy as he discusses his winged companions.
In 2005, the local government announced plans to curb aquaculture on the lake and build a tourist industry.
The government compensated fishermen with water fields near the lake’s banks to farm fish and helped them find alternative livelihoods, especially in tourism. Meanwhile, nets were dismantled and fishing is now banned from April 1 to July 31 every year.
The conservation efforts have paid off. The water of Honghu is visibly clearer, and more species have returned to the lake, including birds.
Zhang said he is seeing more types of birds these days. Though the ecosystem might not be equal to that in his childhood, he believes the progress is still significant.
“Our generation destroyed the lake, so we have to pay the price,” Zhang said. “But hopefully, things will become better through our efforts.”
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