In 2018, we further refined our grid monitoring work in Guanba Community Protected Area and Liziba Village by dividing the project sites into 25 and 27 grids of 2 square kilometers respectively. In our clouded leopard survey, we worked with Zhou Tao, the director of a supporting patrol team for the Yangtze sturgeon, to set up 15 camera traps. In another survey of snow leopards, we mounted 15 cameras within the premises of Sichuan Sandagu Nature Reserve. As of December 31, 2018, a total of 127 infrared cameras were mounted in place (83 more than the previous year), and an area of 700 square kilometers had been subjected to monitoring.
In terms of community-based monitoring and patrol, a new co-conservation mechanism was officially launched in the Minshan area of the National Giant Panda Park (the Huoxi River Basin and the Baishuijiang Nature Reserve). Accomplished thus far in this system are 400 forest patrols, 300 fishery patrols, and 30 joint anti-poaching patrols. The collective assessment has been carried out against Gansu’s Baishuijiang National Nature Reserve targeting its collectively-owned non-commercial forest as well as its overall performance of the past 40 years since it was established.