Ranger's botanical expertise flowers

In February 2019, Wang finally returned to the reserve to work as a ranger and was promoted to director of the Muyu Protection Center, where he is responsible for overseeing 11 rangers monitoring 50 patrol routes.

The shortest is 6 kilometers and the longest 25 km. "It takes us 3 to 4 days to walk the longest route," he said. "It takes us a month to finish patrolling all of the routes once."

As a result, he has become familiar with most of the plants under State protection within the center's administration.

At present, the center has five full-time rangers including Wang, but employs 48 part-time patrolmen from the villages under its jurisdiction. "We pay them 400 yuan ($56) a month," Wang said. "When we patrol a particular route, one of the part-time patrolmen living nearby goes with us as our local guide."

On a regular patrol, Wang and his colleagues try to identify all the flowers, birds and animals they see along the way, and record sightings on a mobile handset.

He said that many State-protected trees grow in forests belonging to village collectives or even to individuals, and so if villagers apply to fell trees in the forests under the reserve's administration, rangers are sent to tell them to avoid protected species.

"That's also why I need to know how to identify plants," Wang said. "I also need to be familiar with where protected plants are located in my area."