China to help Mongolia in rare Gobi bear protection

ULAN BATOR - The governments of China and Mongolia on Monday reached an agreement that obliges China to help Mongolia protect its rare Gobi bear from extinction by implementing a Gobi bear conservation project.

The agreement, reached between and by China's Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Environment, Green Development and Tourism of Mongolia, aims to protect Gobi bears living in western Mongolia's Great Gobi conservation area, which is their only habitat on the earth.

Speaking at the document signing ceremony, Batbayar Tserendorj, Vice Minister of Environment, Green Development and Tourism of Mongolia, stressed that Mongolia will fully support the Gobi bear protection project.

Under the agreement, in the coming three years, the Chinese government will provide assistance in scientific research in Gobi bear's population and environment assessment, promoting the level of management of the Great Gobi conservation area, and providing necessary equipment and material supplies.

Experts from the Chinese Academy of Forestry have spent eight days in collecting habitat area information and learning Gobi bear conservation practices through an on-the-spot investigation across the 18,000-square-kilometer core habitat of Gobi bear in the Great Gobi conservation area in Mongolia.

Based on the on-the-spot investigation, after communication with Mongolian officials, the two sides reached consensus on Gobi bear's protection.

Yang Qingdong, Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in Mongolia, said Chinese experts' arduous research efforts under tough conditions in the past few days contributed to the success of the agreement.

Gobi bears, first found in the 1920s near Altai mountain range in western Mongolia, are listed as critically endangered in the Mongolian Redbook of Endangered Species and are on the verge of extinction because of global climate change.

The Latest survey showed that there are only more than 20 Gobi bears left in the Great Gobi conservation area.