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After stepped-up efforts and more community and government involvement, Southwest China’s Xizang is maintaining its position as a hotspot for biodiversity with recognition of the ecosystem services it provides

By Wang Yan Updated Oct.1

Peach blossoms bloom along the Yarlung Zangbo River, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region, April 4, 2025 (Photo by IC)

When natural science guide Zou Tao took a 15-strong group of nature lovers to Medog County, China’s Xizang Autonomous Region for the May Day holiday, he said they were stunned by the variety of flora and fauna they encountered, particularly wild orchids. 　

The area, in the region’s southeast, is famed for rich biodiversity and pristine landscapes, and remained relatively untouched until the last decade, mainly due to its inaccessibility. 　

“We saw countless wild epiphytic orchids, growing without soil and clinging to rainforest treetops with flowers dangling in the air. They were so beautiful and captivating, we stopped to take photos all the time,” said Zou, who is also a wildlife photographer from Chengdu, Sichuan Province. The group spotted 37 orchid species, with up to a dozen different types growing on one tree. 　

New species are still being discovered. In June, Chinese botanists revealed in journal PhytoKeys a new orchid species called Paphiopedilum motuoense, named after Medog where they had found it. Motuo is the standard Chinese rendering of the Tibetan name Medog. 　

Paphiopedilum, or slipper orchids, are mainly found in southwestern and southern China, usually in leaf litter on limestone in semi-deciduous forests or on steep cliffs at 450-1,450 meters. Rare and popular among plant enthusiasts, all Paphiopedilum species are listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), with international trade in specimens prohibited except for non-commercial use. In China, they are listed in the State Priority Protected Wild Plants List, with collection banned since 2021.

Tourists visit the 76.8 meter-tall holy tree “Xin Dabu” in Gelin Village, Medog County, Xizang Autonomous Region, May 4, 2025 (Photo by Zou Tao)

Lotus Land

Xizang, the main part of the QinghaiXizang Plateau, hosts the world’s highest-latitude tropical rainforest and is a global plant diversity hotspot with the largest elevational range and an average altitude above 4,000 meters. Southeastern Xizang’s Medog, at the Himalayas’ foot, is a global biodiversity hotspot due to its altitude spanning multiple climate and vegetation zones, boasting a unique, rich ecosystem ideal for orchids. Medog County Forestry and Grassland Bureau said it is home to the largest wild orchid distribution in China with some 550 species, more than 33 percent of orchids found nationwide. 　

Medog, meaning “secret lotus” in Tibetan, is a county administered by Nyingchi, a prefecture-level city in southeast Xizang. It hosts the richest variety of endemic species at the county level in China, with over 185 species of wild animals and plants named after it. 　

With the mighty Yarlung Zangbo River, which becomes the Brahmaputra downstream, flowing through it from north to south, Medog County boasts amazing natural landscapes, from deep river canyons at only 150 meters above sea level, through biomes of lush subtropical jungles and coniferous forests up to the last major peak of the eastern Himalayas, the 7,780-meter Mount Namjagbarwa, the 15th tallest mountain in the world. According to Fu Yongbo, Party secretary of Medog, 78 percent of the county is forested, most of which is virgin forest. 　

Remote and mostly inaccessible until the last decade, Medog’s isolation and varied landscapes allowed wildlife and flora to thrive. Home to large carnivores like clouded leopards, jackals and black bears, camera traps photographed a Bengal tiger in 2023. There are thought to be more than 20 clouded leopards. It hosts 147 national key protected wild animal species and 144 protected plant species. 　

Medog is also a key hub for scientific research. Dawa, an entomologist and researcher at the Tibetan Plateau Institute of Biology in Lhasa, told NewsChina that over the past decade, researchers from many institutions have flocked to Medog to collect materials and conduct studies, with a striking number of new species discovered, including mammals, insects and reptiles. 　

About two decades ago, locals, mostly of the Monba and Lhoba ethnicities, were still isolated from the outside world, relying on hunting and slash-and-burn farming. Wen Guo, a Han resident of Gelin Village, whose wife is Monba, said in the past, families would cut thousands of square meters of forest in April, burn it, then plant corn. Such subsistence farming yielded little, barely sustaining them. 　

For decades, road building efforts stalled due to frequent landslides and earthquakes, until 2013, when a 117-kilometer highway connecting the main county town to neighboring Bome County was completed. Medog was the last county in China to be connected by road. 　

The completion of the Bome-Medog Highway not only eased transportation and communication between Medog and other areas, boosting rapid growth in its agriculture, animal husbandry, tourism and commerce, but also brought modern conservation concepts to remote ethnic communities. 　

Since 2000, the entire county has been part of the National Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon Nature Reserve.

A family of black-necked cranes forages in the wetlands of Xainza County, Nagqu City, Xizang Autonomous Region, July 10, 2025 (Photo by IC)

A herd of kiang runs near a wetland in Purang County, Ngari Prefecture, Xizang Autonomous Region, September 30, 2024 (Photo by IC)

Tibetan gazelles graze in Xainza County, Nagqu City, Xizang Autonomous Region, December 5, 2024 (Photo by IC)

Traditional Knowledge

For centuries, Medog’s ethnic communities depended on the area’s natural resources, gathering knowledge which has been passed down for generations. 　

Palden, a 55-year-old Monba from Gengzhang Town, Nyingchi, told NewsChina that before the ban on rifles and the establishment of nature reserves in the 1990s, he and others from his community hunted in the forests near Zhaqu, a village near Medog. They targeted musk deer, bears, takins and leopards as their main sources of meat. 　

“In my hometown, plants are used as natural medicines,” he said. “Tradition says Medog residents don’t need doctors because our vegetables and herbs are medicine, and we drink natural spring water.” Palden said that traditional Monba knowledge recognizes which herbs to use for ailments. 　

The Monba share similar religious traditions with Tibetans, including identifying holy mountains and rivers. “From childhood,” 28-year-old Monba Dechen Tsomo from Medog told NewsChina in Nyingchi, “my grandparents taught me that disrespecting nature – mountains, lakes, rivers, even a rock – brings bad luck, and random tree-cutting is strictly forbidden.” 　

In the early 2000s, as more attention was paid to ecological protection and the Yarlung Zangbo reserve was established, harming flora and fauna was banned. To incentivize locals to abandon unsustainable resource use and join conservation efforts, the government introduced financial subsidies and hired villagers as forest rangers. 　

Wen Guo said that for those that participate in conservation, annual ecological subsidies in Medog have risen from around 1,000 yuan (US$139) per person to about 10,000 yuan (US$1,387). Work includes patrolling and cleaning up their surroundings. “If one villager illegally cuts down trees or hunts, the entire community is fined and loses their subsidies,” Wen said, adding that this strict rule is effective. 　

Gelin, a Medog village of 29 households and 123 people, is home to the “Xin Dabu,” which means “big holy tree” in Monba. It is a 76.8-meter Bhutan white pine that was dubbed the tallest tree in China when researchers measured it in April 2022, although it lost its crown when they found an even taller tree in Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon in June 2023 – a Himalayan cypress standing 102.3 meters tall. The 300-year-old pine has boosted ecotourism, with many visitors coming to see the area’s rich orchids and forest birds. 　

Orchids are common in Gelin villagers’ courtyards, as locals collect them to grow at home. Since 2021, with guidance from Shan Shui Conservation Center, a community conservation NGO, Gelin launched an orchid rewilding program. By July 2025, locals had reintroduced 1,700 orchids to the wild. 　

Villagers learned the names and conservation status of specific orchid species. Jiang Nan, a Shan Shui staffer, notes this boosts their conservation awareness, discourages them from collecting rare plants and engages them in hands-on wildlife protection. 　

Gelin Village has 29 forest rangers, one per household, hired by the local government. Apart from patrolling nearby forests twice monthly, Shan Shui trained them to collect camera trap data and monitor wildlife. 　

Jiang said most of the rangers are former hunters with expertise in wild animal behavior. “They know where to find wildlife, helping us place camera traps effectively,” she said. 　

There are around 900 infrared cameras installed in Medog’s forests through cooperation with research institutes and social organizations. 　

According to Medog County Forestry and Grassland Bureau, the county has 2,106 forest rangers, with duties including protecting rare plants, monitoring endangered wildlife, preventing illegal hunting and guarding against forest fires.

Wildlife Haven

Medog is a microcosm of strengthened ecological and biodiversity conservation in Xizang. Decades of wildlife protection efforts have curbed once-rampant illegal poaching. The Xizang region has established 47 nature reserves covering 412,300 square kilometers, over one-third of its total area. To date, 217 national key protected wild animal species and 38 plant species are protected there. 　

In Xizang, five areas have been earmarked for national parks, and the process is ongoing. These include Changtang Reserve, Mount Qomolangma (also known as Mount Everest), the Gangdise Mountains, the Gaoligong Mountains and the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon. 　

At the end of 2023, Xizang was home to 1,072 species of terrestrial wild vertebrates, including 65 species of wild animals under national first-class protection such as the snow leopard, wild yak, black-necked crane and Tibetan antelope, and 152 species of wild animals under national second-class protection. 　

Populations of large and medium wild animals in Xizang ranks among the nation’s highest. Tibetan antelopes, once endangered by poachers, have rebounded significantly, surpassing 300,000. Tibetan red deer, once deemed extinct, have also recovered, with their numbers exceeding 800. 　

Locals readily join wildlife conservation, partly due to religious and Buddhist traditions of “no killing” that have been reinforced since poaching was outlawed and use of animal skins discouraged. 　

Yang Le, deputy director of the Xizang Plateau Institute of Biology and a 20-year expert on black-necked cranes, stresses the value of community-led conservation. He told NewsChina that thanks to ongoing efforts, the population of overwintering black-necked cranes (national first-class protected) in Xizang has stayed steady, now exceeding 11,000. Rangers in crane habitats monitor the birds, which aids research. In February 2025, the black-necked crane was officially named Lhasa’s city bird. 　

The central government attaches great importance to ecological conservation on the Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, launching the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research in 2017. Following the first Qinghai-Xizang Scientific Expedition in the 1970s, it sought to update understanding on how the plateau’s environment, ecology and geology have changed amid global climate change and human activities. 　

Led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), this large-scale project involves over 200 institutions and thousands of Chinese scientists across fields like geology, climatology, ecology, hydrology and social sciences, and has achieved significant results. According to an August 2024 press release, while the plateau faces ongoing challenges such as climate change and human activities, it has also seen positive shifts due to strengthened conservation efforts, including improved vegetation coverage, enhanced water and soil conservation, and better windbreak and sand fixation. 　

These efforts are backed by environmental blueprints and laws that are specific to the plateau area. 　

The Chengdu-based Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE) under CAS, which has monitored the plateau for more than two decades, said it remains one of the world’s regions with the highest ecological quality. 　

IMHE’s Wang Xiaodan told China News Service in August 2024 that Xizang’s remarkable progress in ecological protection stems mainly from the combined positive effects of a warming and wetting climate, ecological projects and the synergy of sound policies, human efforts and favorable natural conditions. Meanwhile, Xizang’s ecosystem services have remained stable while growing steadily. Key functions, including carbon sequestration, water conservation, soil retention and windbreak and sand fixation, have either stayed stable or risen by 2 to 5 percent. Wildlife populations have revived significantly. 　

In terms of forests, Xizang has a 12.31 percent coverage rate and a forest stock volume of 2.28 billion cubic meters, with both forest area and stock volume showing growth. For wetlands, 66 percent of natural wetlands are protected. Desertified areas have decreased by 35,000 hectares compared to 2010. 　

Major afforestation projects in the mountains north and south of Lhasa and along the middle reaches of the Yarlung Zangbo River have turned once barren lands lush and green. Launched in 2021, the projects aim to expand green coverage in and around Lhasa by afforesting over 137,333 hectares of barren mountains by 2030, covering 35 townships across nine counties or districts in Lhasa and Lhokha, in the region’s southeast.

Dendrobiums grow in Medog County, Xizang Autonomous Region, May 6, 2025 (Photo by Zou Tao)

Forest ranger Palden, a 55-year-old Monba, is interviewed at his home, Gengzhang Town, Nyingchi, Xizang Autonomous Region, May 23, 2025 (Photo by Wang Yan)

Mutual Benefit

Community involvement in conservation has brought positive changes to livelihoods. In Gelin, drawing on the tallest holy tree “Xin Dabu” and their rich orchid diversity, residents launched ecotourism programs. Since late 2022, with some government subsidies, six families renovated their homes into homestays. 　

In Gelin, Shan Shui provided capacity-building support, inviting orchid experts to offer on-site guidance on cultivation and maintenance. The organization has helped locals expand ecotourism offerings, including hiking, bird and flower watching, integrated with Monba ethnic culture and traditions. Jiang Nan from Shan Shui said guiding visitors to the holy tree earns a villager 200 yuan (US$28). 　

In 2024, Gelin Village earned 120,000 yuan (US$16,640) from ecotourism guiding services, averaging 4,000 yuan (US$555) per household. 　

Despite its pristine natural environment that continues to draw visitors, Medog County welcomed fewer than 20,000 visitors in 2012. That number has risen to 605,500 as of 2024. Dechen Tsomo told NewsChina her family runs a homestay that earns up to 100,000 yuan (US$13,866) a year. 　

Another benefit of conservation efforts is the growth of the organic tea industry. Both Wen Guo and Dechen Tsomo said their households earn up to 70,000 yuan (US$9,817) annually from organic tea farming. 　

Medog County now has 103 organic tea gardens covering 1,266 hectares. As of May 2025, over 133 tons of tea leaves have been sold, generating more than 6.4 million yuan (US$890,000) for farmers. 　

Party Secretary of Medog County Fu Yongbo said that tourism and tea cultivation propelled the county’s GDP from 260 million yuan (US$36m) in 2012 to 1 billion yuan (US$139m) in 2024, with local per capita income rising sharply over the past decade.

Sustainable Future

As more tourists and researchers flock to Medog, local authorities and nature conservationists are contemplating a more sustainable path for the county’s future development. 　

One area of concern is illegal insect collection, with collectors coming to Medog to catch exotic species for their own collection or for commercial purposes. Authorities have imposed strict regulations in Medog. According to a written response from the Medog County Forestry and Grassland Bureau in early August, scientific investigations involving activities like insect collection must follow legal procedures. Researchers first have to register their project with regional authorities overseeing the Yarlung Zangbo Grand Canyon National Nature Reserve, then obtain additional local permissions. Research can only be conducted under forest ranger supervision. 　

Dawa told NewsChina that Medog was once like an island of rich biodiversity, largely untouched by the outside world and free of invasive species. “As more people and goods enter Medog, it could cause irreversible damage,” Dawa said, suggesting a reservation system be used to limit visitor numbers. 　

Tour guide Zou Tao echoes similar concerns about Medog’s current tourism boom. “I believe developing ecotourism that limits entry, thereby reducing human impact on this fragile, unique ecosystem, holds the key to Medog’s long-term future.”

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