EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

A Nature Reserve With a Cultural Lesson

Mongolian Spruce (Picea mongolica)
Baiyinaobao Nature Reserve, Nei Mongol (Inner Mongolia), China

Explanation:  This is the story of a nature reserve with a lesson about cultural tolerance.

Welcome to the seldom-visited Baiyinaobao Nature Reserve in a remote corner of Inner Mongolia, China.  It is winter and very cold.  We are in the west-central corner of Chifeng Municipality, having just climbed to 1495 m (4900 ft) elevation to visit this site.  

Mongolian spruce forest growing in a draw within the reserve.

Baiyinaobao Nature Reserve is a "state-level" (= national) reserve.  It was established to help protect an endemic and endangered species of tree called Mongolian spruce (Picea mongolica, also called Picea meyeri mongolica, as there is some dispute if it is a separate species or a variety of the more widespread Meyer's blue spruce).  

This tree grows at higher elevations and also here in a largely desertified region.  

Although tree-cutting is prohibited in this reserve, you can see what seems to be areas of small, evenly-spaced seedlings and saplings, apparently planted perhaps to regenerate the forest.

Note the patches of seedlings and saplings, apparently planted
within an opening in the forest.

Now, there is a most telling and interesting cultural story here, as well, told to me by my local hosts.

There used to be a lamasery within the Reserve boundaries.  The Buddhist lamas here taught the locals that the trees are sacred and if you cut them down then the gods will serve revenge.  

Then the New China appeared, razed the lamasery, and drove out the lamas.  Since then, the prohibition against cutting was lifted, and the forest cover has declined from its original 40,470 hectares (100,000 acres) to its current 2,430 hectares (6,000 acres), barely preserving a fraction of the original forest and its native plants and animals.  

And concomitantly, the region not within the current reserve boundary has suffered increasing desertification, and decreasing productivity of its grasslands and rangelands.  

The harsh lands of Inner Mongolia, where permanent settlement has
replaced seasonal migration of its inhabitants, resulting in 
overgrazing and deforestation. 

So this is a story of how loss of cultural diversity has caused the loss of biological diversity and productivity of the land.  Culture, society, and ecosystems are indeed tied inextricably, a lesson that, apparently, we all need to continually relearn.