Yesterday I had the honour of moderating a discussion between the visiting Rt. Hon. Emma Reynolds MP, UK Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Ruth Davis OBE, UK Special Representative for Nature, with young Chinese conservationists and academics.
The fact that the conversation took place at NanHaizi, the home of the Milu, or Père David’s Deer (Elaphurus davidianus) was a reminder of what can be achieved when people from opposite sides of the world collaborate.
The case of the Père David’s Deer is a remarkable conservation story. The species was already extinct in the wild by the time Western science encountered it. The last surviving population was kept in the Imperial Hunting Park (NanHaizi) in the south of Beijing. French missionary and naturalist Père Armand David got his first look at them in 1865 — sneaking a view over the park wall — and arranged for specimens to be sent to Europe.
The NanHaizi herd was devastated twice in quick succession: first by flooding in 1894, then by soldiers during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, leaving the species extinct in China.
Fortuitously, several deer had already been sent to European zoos. The 11th Duke of Bedford gathered the scattered survivors — around 18 animals — onto his estate at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, where they thrived. In 1985, the Marquess of Tavistock (the Duke of Bedford’s heir) gifted 22 deer back to China, where they were released at NanHaizi — now the Milu Park — the very site of the original imperial herd. Further animals followed, and breeding populations were established at several sites including Dafeng on the Jiangsu coast.
From those handful of Woburn animals, the global population has grown to several thousand, with self-sustaining populations in the wild in China. It is one of conservation’s great comeback stories.
There is no doubt that there is huge potential for the UK and China to collaborate on nature conservation and, as a Brit who has a deep love of China’s nature and people, it gives me great optimism to see two of the most important voices on nature in the UK visiting Beijing.
Thanks to the brilliant young conservationists and scientists who asked great questions about why urban citizens should care about nature, how we finance nature conservation and what practical things the UK and China can do together on this important agenda.
What nature looks like in 2050 will be determined by the next generation and, if this group of people are representative of the decision-makers of the future, we can look forward with optimism.