GUARDIANS OF THE NATIVE WILDERNESS
In Fangshan, southwest Beijing, the pristine wilderness is patrolled by a team of volunteers who call themselves "the Black Panthers." For years they have been surveying the local biodiversity, fighting poachers and salvaging wildlife.
One of the biggest threats the wild plants are facing is the destructive conduct of theft by those who believe in the supposed magical effects of some already endangered species, said Li Cheng, leader of the Black Panthers.
The advancement of the Internet and e-commerce facilitated the spread of the illegal trade across the country. At the same time, frequent domestic and foreign trade of merchandise has brought along invasive biohazards, which threaten to harm and supplant native species, pushing the latter toward early extinction.
"We hope that China will address this threat by updating the lists of endangered species and intensify law enforcement to crack down on eco-crimes," said Li.
On the other side, to educate the public, raise their awareness and encourage active participation is one of the volunteers' primary missions, he said, adding that to teach people to identify and distinguish native plants and invasive ones, and to inform them of the importance and ecological value of the native flora and fauna is the first step.
In 2016, a smartphone app named "aiPlants" went online. When encountering unknown greenery, users can take a snapshot and the app will search throughout the vast database of China Academy of Sciences' Institute of Botany to identify the family, genus and even species of the photographed plant.
【国内英语资讯:Let there be wilderness: Experts call for protecting native plants in China】相关文章:
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2020-09-15
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