A national park in Russia's Primorsky Territory said on Thursday that it had signed a joint plan of action with a neighboring Chinese natural reserve to cooperate in the protection of rare tigers and leopards
VLADIVOSTOK (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2019) A national park in Russia's Primorsky Territory said on Thursday that it had signed a joint plan of action with a neighboring Chinese natural reserve to cooperate in the protection of rare tigers and leopards.
Russia's Land of the Leopard and China's Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park share a border, and Leopards and tigers living in the area can freely move between both territories. In February 2019, the two national parks signed a memorandum of understanding on long term and comprehensive cooperation.
Earlier this week, the leadership of the Chinese national park paid their first official visit to the Primorsky Territory.
"The visit of the administration of the Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park in November 2019 has become the second important step to develop cooperation. The joint plan of action for 2019-2021 has become the main result of the visit," the Land of the Leopard said in a press statement.
The plan involves regular international exercises by environmental inspectors, coordination that involves the photo monitoring of leopards and tigers, data exchange and other activities to preserve the rare animals. During their four-day visit to the territory, the Chinese delegation became familiar with the security and scientific departments' work and visited the cordon of the Russian national park.
The creation of the cross-border reserve, dubbed the Land of Big Cats, which will include the national parks' territories, may become an important step in this cooperation. In July, Russian Natural Resources and Environment Minister Dmitry Kobylkin held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Lu Hao, and proposed the signing of an intergovernmental agreement regarding the issue.
The Land of the Leopard is a habitat of the rarest big cat in the world � the Amur leopard. These predators only live in the Primorsky Territory, a small region in China bordering Russia and perhaps in North Korea. The bulk of the population lives in the Russian national park. In 2018, 91 adult leopards and 22 kittens were recorded there.
