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We have eight campaigns in our first China cohort. This is fortunate since the number eight is the luckiest in Chinese numerology – Cantonese for eight is the same as the word for “rich.” Mobile phone numbers with lots of 8s sell for thousands of dollars!
One of the Lucky 8, a young, impressively articulate Mongolian woman, Meng Gen, will lead a campaign in the Province of Inner Mongolia – 1,400 kilometers west of Beijing. The conservation target is the saxoul forests that grow in semi-desert, surviving on rainfall of less than 10 inches per year.
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Dr. Nigel Sizer (right)
Our partner is the unique Chinese NGO, Society, Entrepreneur, Ecology (SEE), which was founded by 100 business leaders in Beijing and aims to conserve Inner Mongolia and reduce the spread of the desert (and the dust storms that bedevil life in Beijing every few months, and even cause havoc as far away as Tokyo). SEE is co-funding the campaign with Rare. The partner is deeply committed to empowering local communities, traditional Mongol farmers and herders, so that they can take charge of conserving the resources themselves.
The saxoul forests have suffered many years of steady decline. The wood of the saxoul tree makes great fuel, and is especially prized for barbecuing whole lambs, a regional speciality (which I must admit sounds delicious!).
Some community members are expert in nurturing and sustaining the slow growing saxoul, whose roots reach 10 meters deep into the parched soil. They harvest a parasitic plant, the cistanche, which infects and feeds on saxoul roots, eventually emerging through the soil to flower. This extraordinary herbaceous parasite is a valuable medicinal plant, prized in the nearby cities. Harvesting the cistanche requires great care so as not to disturb the roots of the saxoul. Communities also gather dead wood from the trees to use as fuel. SEE has successfully completed a pilot project to help communities conserve and keep outsiders from trucking away saxoul wood. The Pride campaign will help this pilot project expand to an area of about 10,000 square kilometers.
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