On April 28th, NEFU successfully held the launch meeting and technical training class for the Heilongjiang Provincial Siberian Tiger Survey and Monitoring and Proactive Early Warning and Harm Prevention Project (Phase I).

This event was organized by NEFU’s Feline Research Center under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. It was co-organized by the Heilongjiang Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, Heilongjiang Provincial Institute of Wildlife, Heilongjiang Provincial Academy of Sciences Institute of Natural Resources and Ecology, Harbin Normal University, the Branch of Nature Reserves and Biodiversity of the Chinese Society of Forestry, and the NEFU-Xinguang Joint Innovation Laboratory for Wildlife Conservation. Over 130 representatives attended, including leaders and technical experts from various prefectural and county forestry and grassland bureaus, the Longjiang Forest Industry Group, the Yichun Forest Industry Group, and co-organizing units.

The Siberian tiger, an endangered apex predator at the top of the food chain, is significant for maintaining ecosystem stability. Heilongjiang Province possesses the largest contiguous Siberian tiger habitat within China. With intensified ecological protection efforts, the Siberian tiger population and habitat in Heilongjiang Province have continuously recovered in recent years. However, human-tiger conflict incidents have also increased annually, posing new challenges for assessing human-tiger conflict risk and proactive prevention in Siberian tiger conservation work.

To accurately determine the distribution patterns of the Siberian tiger population, the Heilongjiang Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau has commissioned NEFU to undertake the survey and monitoring of the population size and distribution dynamics of Siberian tigers, their prey, and other forest-dwelling large and medium-sized mammals. This initiative aims to comprehensively understand the distribution dynamics of animal resources like Siberian tigers and other large and medium-sized mammals, thereby facilitating the scientific management of human-wildlife conflict and the development of ecological civilization throughout the province.

The meeting was presided over by Ying Tianyu, Director of the Platform Management Office of NEFU’s Research Institute and Vice Dean of the Science and Technology Institute. At the meeting, Yu Haipeng, member of the Standing Committee of the NEFU Party Committee and Vice President, and Zhang Minghai, Director of NEFU’s Feline Research Center under the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, delivered speeches expressing NEFU’s strong emphasis on and earnest expectations for the project.

Professor Jiang Guangshun, the project leader, provided a detailed introduction to the project’s implementation plan. Sun Jianyue and Wei Hailin, officials from the Heilongjiang Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, gave thorough explanations on the key aspects of special fund accounting and the requirements for auditing wildlife protection projects, providing robust policy and financial guidance for the project's successful execution.

The event also included technical training on surveying and monitoring wild animals like Siberian tigers. The training covered technical standards and key techniques for camera trap monitoring, the current situation of human-tiger conflict, and how to use the direct reporting system for tiger sightings, technical standards for data collection, and technical standards for collecting and preserving genetic samples in the field. This effectively enhanced the capacity of grassroots leaders and technical personnel across the province in Siberian tiger monitoring and harm prevention, fostered consensus among all stakeholders, and laid a solid foundation for the smooth progress of the project.