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Border guardians rewarded for wildlife protection

By Liang Chao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-12-14 16:13

A group of Chinese law-enforcement personnel including police officers, soldiers or custom inspectors fighting against illegal poachers, cross-border smuggle of wild animals, have won the country's first-ever border wildlife guardian award Saturday in Beijing.

Five of them were entitled as guardians of wildlife in China's border areas with 20 others got nomination prizes of the award.

All winners will get top quality equipments including telescopes for their work. They are also granted access to a law-enforcement training to be held in the Pamirs or Northeast China Heilongjiang province with special courses designed for them.

Furthermore, they are scheduled to learn from the successful experiences and ways of protecting wildlife in Laos next March with the help of the award's help.

The winners were picked up from a 3-month long application, recommendation, voting through the Internet, which were launched in July. Their qualifications were finally examined and appraised by experts invited by the World Conservation Society (WCS), an international conservation organization based in the United States, with the help of its Chinese partners. 

WCS sponsored the award to encourage more Chinese law-enforcement personnel to work together with others for the protection of wildlife along the border that China shares with 14 neighboring countries.  Wild animals in the areas have been vulnerable to be poached by those involved in illegal profit-making smuggling of wildlife or related products.