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Module 6 Tibetan antelope. Jiesang knew he had to move quickly. He shouted to the poachers to put down their guns. Although surprised, the poachers had an advantage –there were more of them. In the battle which followed Jiesang was shot and killed. When his frozen body was found hours later, he was still holding his gun. He had given his life to save the Tibetan antelope. At the beginning of the twentieth century there were millions of antelopes on the Qinghai – Tibetan Plateau. By the 1990s the number had fallen to about 50,000. The season is simple: the wool of the Tibetan antelope is the most expensive in the world. It is soft, light and warm – the ideal coat for an animal which has to survive at high altitudes. A shawl made from the wool (known as “shahtoosh”, or “king of wools” in Persian) can sell for five thousand dollars. For poachers the profits can be huge. Often working at night, the poachers shoot whole herds of antelopes at a time, leaving only the babies, whose wool is not worth so much. The animals are skinned on the spot and the wool taken to India, where it is made into the shawls. From there, it is exported to rich countries in North America and Europe. The business is completely illegal – there has been a ban on the trade since 1975. But in the 1990s the shawls came into fashion among rich people. A police raid on a shop in London found 138 shawls. About 1,000 antelopes – or 2 per cent of the world’s population – had been killed to make them. In the 1990s the Chinese government began to take an active part in protecting the antelopes in the Hoh Xil Nature Reserve – the huge national park on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, which is the main habitat of the antelopes. Over the next ten years about 3,000 poachers were caught and 300 vehicles confiscated. Sometimes there were gunfights, like the one in which Jiesang Suonandajie was killed. But today the governments seems to be winning the battle. The number of poachers has fallen. The small group of officials who work in the reserve are helped by volunteers who come from all over the country, and who are ready for the difficult conditions of life at 5,000 metres. Meanwhile, in those countries where the shawls are sold, police are getting tough with the dealers. International co-operation seems to be working. Since 1997 the antelope population has slowly begun to grow again. Module 6 Saving the antelopes 拯救藏羚羊 1994年1月一个滴水成冰的寒冷日子,杰桑.索南达发现了他一直寻找的目标群正在杀害频临灭绝的藏羚羊的偷猎者.杰桑知道,他必须迅速行动.他大声地喊叫着,要偷猎者放下武器.偷猎者虽然感到惊慌,但他们占着人多的优势.在接下来的枪战中,杰桑被击中身亡.几小时后,人们发现他冻僵的身体,手中仍然紧握着枪.他为拯救藏羚羊献出了生命.20世纪初期,青藏高原上有数百万只藏羚羊.截止到20世纪90年代,藏羚羊的数目下降到了大约5万只.原因很简单：藏羚羊毛是世上最昂贵的毛皮.它又软又轻又暖和,是高海拔地区动物赖以生存的理想皮毛.一条藏羚羊毛织成的披肩（名为“沙图什”,即波斯语中的“众毛之王”）能卖到5000美元.这对偷猎者来说利润是很丰富的.那些偷猎者常常是夜里出动,一次就捕杀掉整群的藏羚羊,只留下那些毛不怎么值钱的幼羊.这些被捕杀的藏羚羊被就地剥皮,羊毛被运送到印度.在那里,藏羚羊毛被织成披肩.从那出口到北美和欧洲的富裕国家.这种贸易是完全违法的,自1975年以来一直被禁止.但到了20世纪90年代,这种藏羚羊毛披肩在有钱人中间流行开来,成为时尚.在伦敦,警察在对一家商店的一次突击搜查中竟发现138条披肩.这就意味着又大约1000只藏羚羊被猎杀---约占全球总数的2％.20世纪90年代,中国政府开始积极开展可可西里自然保护区的藏羚羊保护工自然保护区是青藏高原的一个大型国家公园,是藏羚羊的主要栖息地.在接下来的有3000多名偷猎者被抓获和300辆汽车杯没收.有时,还会发生枪战.像杰桑.索就是在这类枪战中牺牲的.如今,政府似乎正在赢得这场战争,偷猎者的人数下降了.工作在保护区的政府官员们得到了来自全国各地的,愿意忍受海拔5000米以上恶劣生活环境的志愿者们的支持.同时,在那些出售藏羚羊毛披肩的国家,警方开始严厉打击藏羚羊毛披肩的贩卖者.国际合作也见成效,自1997年以来,藏羚羊的数自己也开始慢慢回升. WWF The WWF is the world’s largest organization for nature conservation. It was founded in the UK in 1961 and opened an international office in Switzerland in the same year. its aim was to protect the natural habitats of wild animals in danger of extinction. One of the founders, the painter and naturalist Peter Scott, designed the famous panda logo. The initials, WWF, stand for World Wide Fund for Nature. Originally the name was World Wildlife Fund. Today the organization has branches in 90 countries in all five continents. It has thousands of volunteers and more than five million supporters who help by giving money. Since 1985 it has spent more than $1,000 million on 11,000 projects in 130 countries. The focus of attention has changed, too. In the 1980s the WWF became interested in all activities which have an effect on the environment, such as pollution and the way we use energy. The WWF believes that our world has a future only if peole learn to conserve nature and not waster energy. As a result, it started working with governments to introduce environmental education into schools. The WWF has worked with the Chinese government since 1980, when Dr George shaller arrived to work with Chinese scientists on the panda project. For fifteen years WWF China staff had been based in Switzerland but came to China to monitor the project. Then, in 1995, the organization set up an office in Beijing. Today there are more than thirty staff working on twenty rojects all over the country. They include work in forests, energy, and in environmental education for China’s primary and secondary schools as well as saving the panda, of course. |
