Ranger with a Lifelong Mission to Protect Ancient Forest in Yunnan, China

The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) could be held in October 2020 in Yunnan, China.
Yunnan is not only the province with richest biodiversity in China, but also one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. In order to record and present the precious biodiversity resources in Southwest China, as well as to raise public awareness of primordial forest ecosystem, Greenpeace Beijing Office, in cooperation with a wildlife photography institution “Wild China”, spent 2 years on searching and taking a life-size photo of the world’s oldest Himalaya Hemlock. It is also the first publicity life-size photo of giant ancient trees in mainland China.

During the investigation, Greenpeace also found an 82-year-old forest ranger, Yang Shiqiang, who was the first local woodlands staff to discover the thousand-year-old Himalaya Hemlock. In early 1960s, Yang started to work in Caojian Woodland, Yunlong County, Dali. He sees the change in social demand for tree resources within these years: from extensive to intensive development model. People began to realize the importance of environmental and ecological protection and take efforts to guard the precious primordial forest in their homeland.