XINING, July 5 (Xinhua) -- Lekga, 55-year-old herdsman in northwest China's Qinghai Province, has a new job in the Sanjiangyuan National Park in the province -- guarding the environment.
The national park, also known as the Three-River-Source National Park, is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, which is praised as the "water tower" of China. It started trial operation in 2016 and is set to open in 2020.
Along with other over 17,000 herdsmen, he has been trained and licensed by the local government as an ecological conservator in the national park that is in charge of rescuing wildlife, preventing fires, cleaning up the garbage, and other affairs related to environmental protection.
"Local herdsmen are familiar with the terrains and the wildlife in the national park and have a strong awareness of environmental protection, who can play a more important role in the environmental protection than others," said Liu Xinnong, a staff with the Beijing-based Shanshui natural protection center.
The herdsmen uploaded the pictures of snow leopards and brown bears that they saw to the social platforms to raise the public awareness of the wildlife protection.
The national park used to be troubled by garbage, grassland degradation, and other environmental issues. The country has invested more than 18 billion yuan (2.6 billion U.S. dollars) in environmental protection and ecological restoration in the Sanjiangyuan area from 2005 to 2018.
"I rescued a snow leopard with some villagers and released it into the wild in 2016," said Lekga. "I want to do my best to protect wildlife in the national park."
The ecological conservators, including Lekga, receive a salary of 1,800 yuan every month. The provincial government has paid compensations worth of 30.5 million yuan to local people whose livestock were killed by wild animals.
"The local government has included content about environmental protection into the textbooks in primary and middle schools to raise the awareness of environmental protection among the students," said Mu Yonghong, an official with the management committee of the national park.
The province has formulated 14 regulations at the provincial level in the field of ecological environment, providing a legal foundation for the protection of the national park.
