Wildlife protection gets a ‘Simba’ boost
Print Edition
Increasing public awareness of wildlife protection among Chinese people and their participation will make a difference in the global cause of wildlife conservation, a famed Chinese conservationist has said.
Zhuo Qiang, also known by his alias “Simba,” said China, as a major developing country with an earnest sense of responsibility toward the shared destiny of humankind, is actively participating in the global pursuit of an ecological civilization, and this has brought hope and progress to the cause.
Last weekend, a few hundred attendees from home and abroad joined Zhuo in the Run for Wildlife, a charitable event held on Beijing’s outskirts.
While running up and down a 5-kilometer hilly path across the forest park, participants vowed to reject wildlife products and do what they can to protect endangered species and defend the world ecosystem.
“It is great to see more Chinese people become aware and join the cause to protect wildlife,” Zhuo said, who flew back from Kenya to support the event organized by Nature Guardian, a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting habitat conservation, public education and international exchange between China and Africa.
In 2011, Zhuo traveled to Mara-Serengeti savannah, where he stays with the indigenous Maasai people and works with local conservationists at Ol Kinyei Conservancy, a sanctuary for wildlife covering 260,000 hectares of wilderness.
In recent years, Zhuo and his team have welcomed many Chinese visitors, including children, who offered to volunteer for the project.
Coming back from Kenya, Chinese volunteers shared their experience and called for an immediate end to the consumption of wildlife products, such as ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales and big cat bones.
Fourteen-year-old Wang Jingyi volunteered at Ol Kinyei last summer. “I will make sure that nobody in my family or any of my friends consume wildlife products,” she said at the event. “Really, the lions are not scary. Humans are more frightening to them than they are to us.”
Zhuo’s wildlife protection work in Kenya did not go smoothly at the beginning.
“When I first arrived and told people that I had come to protect wildlife, nobody believed me, as Chinese men were often linked with poaching and consumption of wildlife,” Zhuo said.
His work includes patrolling across the conservancy to prevent poaching and illicit grazing, monitoring, observing of wildlife, as well as rescuing injured animals. Through years of hard work, he has gained the trust and respect of local tribes and the international community. But wildlife conservation is not a single man’s journey, Zhuo said. “It can only be achieved by a united community.”
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