Yes, we must have hope, faith and foresight regarding our future generations. Why need nature reserves when all our future children and grandchildren are fed, educated and learned at an early age about caring for our natural world? I can foresee that in time, what was necessarily set up as nature reserves in our generation can be gradually taken down, and be returned to unrestricted grounds for everyone, rather than a paradise for the select few who are one-time protectors of these areas. I can testify to such slow, then gradual, and now more rapid development within the last five decades of work around many nature reserves and outside of it. On a large scale, I was made Chief Advisor of the Arjin Shan Nature Reserve in 1993, a protected area restricted of entry to just about anyone, with an area of 45,000 square kilometers, larger than Taiwan or Belgium, yet with only some thirty families living within it back in the early 1990s.
When we discovered the first ever known Tibetan Antelope calving ground at the reserve’s westernmost extremity in 1998, there was a massacre, wholesale killing as poachers were rampant in gunning down pregnant females, decimating amass this protected species. Our huge and far-reaching international media campaign helped in making the purchase of its product, the high fashion “must-have” shahtoosh, no longer socially acceptable, let alone illegal.
Our media coverage in the likes of CNN, BBC, CNBC, Discovery and National Geographic Channels probably did more
in stopping such clandestine trading than the highly publicized policing efforts to such a huge area of the Tibetan plateau. When a lucrative market is there, illegal poaching will continue, as demonstrated by other endangered species trading worldwide.
By the time I last visited the calving ground in 2012, the population of migrating female antelope had multiplied to huge
herds. And in 2023 when I did a transact in western Tibet during the migration season, I encountered close-up many herds of females. Even our drone above head received little notice from these herds, grazing while moving as if not bothered. In the past, since I first saw them in 1982, they would go into stampede even from half a kilometers away when we approached them.
Of course, the Tibetan Antelope is only one of many flagship species CERS has worked on over its four decades of existence. We have covered similar situations with the Black-necked Crane, the Wild Yak, Tibetan Wild Ass, Yunnan Snub-nosed Monkey, Musk deer and more. Our recent expedition to northern Tibet in June further testifies to my theory that wildlife is fast returning to its former numbers, at times in multiple times its former perilous population. Within a short camping stop in Dire, a remote village by the sacred Tangra Yumco, the deepest lake in Tibet, we encountered two Asiatic Bears coming so close to a nomad’s camp that two mastiffs had to chase them off. Also a pair of Black-necked Crane hatching by their nest, casually groomed and fed as we watched on. Furthermore, Tibetan Wild Ass, Tibetan Gazelle, Antelope, fox, Blue Sheep were all roaming near the road, sometimes within sight that render a long camera lens useless. It is not unusual that some would cross the road in front of us.
Every winter around February, I would make my “pilgrimage” to Kushiro in eastern Hokkaido, to be among the Red-
crowned Crane, Stellar Sea Eagle and White-tailed Eagle. Deer, elk (wapiti) and fox also roamed the bushes and open
ground around the pasture land. Some would often come onto the road, like the fox and the deer, and we have to stop and wait for them to move, before continuing with our drive forward. This is another indication of man and wildlife living in
close quarters. The swan, taking advantage of an open and natural hot spring I often go to, would be right by my side as I
soaked myself in the snowbound spring once belonging to the indigenous Ainu people.
Recently, the University of Hong Kong Wong How Man Centre for Exploration has the honor of hosting conservation icon
Jane Goodall to speak at the university. Seeing that the auditorium of over 800 is filled with young students, and over 200
on the waiting list, is a joy. Furthermore, knowing that such generation, known to be with TikTok attention span and instant gratification, would sit through an hour of talk mesmerized by someone who speaks slowly with a hypnotizing voice is very compelling. A good story, especially a real-life story, is always welcome. Goodall’s breakthrough work on one species, the chimpanzee, is bringing us all closer to the natural world, despite the fact that the students are from one of the most cosmopolitan cities in the world. Jane, at 90, is still an enigma for our younger generation. That evening, I came across a family of a dozen wild boars right outside my studio home. Nature is indeed among us.
Finally, on the other balance of age, and to further reinforce my newfound belief is someone whom I can proudly consider
as my protégé. Chu Wen Wen, a young woman of thirty, started reading my books (I have authored over 30) as assigned
by her father to begin learning English at the age of eight. As many of my books published in Taiwan are bilingual, students can use them to learn Chinese or English, if they so prefer. Some five years ago, Wen Wen founded her own non-profit organization in northern Xinjiang to begin a conservation project for the Asiatic Beaver. Though outside of the nature reserve designated to protect this species, she has made huge inroads into expanding the beaver population to a new record. Her efforts not only complemented the work of the reserve, but expanded it much further along the same river system.
Today, her work has expanded to a wildlife rescue Center covering many species of injured wildlife, be it bear, fox, palas
cat, deer, antelope, eagles, birds, and of course her beloved beaver. She has millions of young followers and supporters
online, and was chosen to represent China’s youth born in the 1990s, speaking at the United Nations in New York earlier
this year to present her case. Recently while along with me in Hangzhou at Westlake University, she received the great
news that she has won the coveted Paulson’s Prize, competing against behemoth old NGOs and government agencies.
Rather than inspiring her in my own writing, now she has inspired me to start a new project at the northern frontiers of Hong Kong. Nam Sang Wai is almost adjacent to the world-famous Mai Po Reserve, a Ramsar wetland site to protect migrating birds that spend their winter at this border region of Hong Kong with Shenzhen in China. My hope is to follow Chu Wen Wen’s footsteps, so that we too can eventually make a case that we can protect wildlife just as well, if not better, by uncovering more and more areas for our citizens, especially younger generations, to appreciate nature and wildlife living among us. Early winter sightings of the endangered Black-faced Spoonbill in action among hundreds of other seabirds has been very promising. Next is to get them used to our non-intrusive presence, without “blinds” which should gradually become obsolete I believe. Such a façade is like the camouflaged camera lenses, more for show than for function.
But as usual, CERS makes no promise, only delivery, and at times even delivery in stealth. As long as I can quietly observe
our future generation enjoying nature freely, I would feel fully gratified. As for our nature reserves, let us hope they would
take the cue and gradually remove the borders, allowing everyone to visit at will, if even incrementally. Let us also hope
that my prophesy would become a reality, leading others to follow, Amen.
