Campaign manager: Jianmin Lang
Partner: Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)

Located on the border between North Korea and Russia, Hunchun Nature Reserve covers an area of 108,700 hectares and abuts the border of North Korea in the south and Russia in the north. A partnership between Rare, the reserve and Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Rare’s Pride campaign is protecting Siberian tigers that live in the reserve. By some estimates there are between three and five tigers at the site, about one quarter of China’s entire population of 20. There are estimated to be an additional 100 tigers on the Russian side, making the reserve a critical important corridor for protecting tigers in the future.

Rare and WCS-China are working with the Hunchun Nature Reserve to run a Pride campaign to inspire community members to stop hunting and eating the tiger’s primary food source, wild game, whose dwindling populations offer the gravest threat to the species’ survival. Pride campaign manager Jianmin Lang launched the campaign in 2008, targeting the following three main audiences: 

  • • Local villagers, whom the campaign has enlisted to form volunteer patrol teams to remove snares placed to catch tiger prey (which often result in slow, painful deaths for tigers themselves);
  • • Top government officials, from whom the campaign has started to elicit public appeals to stop consuming illegally hunted game; and
  • • Restaurant owners that serve illegal game, which the campaign will subject to increased inspections (after pre-campaign surveys showed 60% of the population believed this tactic would be effective).
  • Jianmin Lang is working to save the tigers in Hunchun Nature reserve by establishing voluntary patrol teams in three villages; inspecting restaurants for poached meat; and working with army border guards to reduce poaching. His Pride campaign is working to amend valley management contracts with new requirements. Currently villagers who have these contracts frequently hire guards known to set snares for wild animals. The amended contracts would specify that if any snares are found, the leases will be terminated.
Progress on the campaign…
  • • Conducting demonstration projects to introduce new sustainable business enterprises, such as bee-keeping and cattle production in stables to increase meat yield and supplement income lost by farmers who stop hunting and selling wild meat;
  • • Recruiting and training two volunteer patrol teams, which are now actively monitoring wildlife, removing illegally set snares, and working to prevent the illegal hunting of wildlife in and around the reserve;
  • • Securing commitments by WCS China to conduct wild animal monitoring in 2010, which will set a solid baseline for measuring impact in the years following the campaign; and
  • • Producing and launching marketing materials and activities targeting local restaurants and consumers, persuading them to reduce their consumption of illegally hunted meat. 

To further explore this campaign, please visit our conservation community at RarePlanet.org.