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Amur-Heilong
Threats
The Amur-Heilong may seem remote, but it is not beyond the reach of globalization.
© WWF-Canon/Vladimir Filonov
Many of the market forces threatening the Amur-Heilong are external to the region. Intense pressure on the Amur-Heilong's forests comes from the global demand for lumber, which goes into products manufactured in China for sale in the West. Overfishing is also a challenge, and the Amur tiger is under threat by poaching and the illegal trade in tiger parts.
Forestry
In 1998, the Chinese government closed down most of the country's timber production, following a series of massive floods exacerbated by decades of unsustainable logging. But while China's timber supply dropped, the global demand grew, resulting in a spike in Russia's timber production. The chain reaction continued, with Russia resorting to unsustainable or illegal harvesting to meet increased demand. As a result, Russia's rivers became polluted and habitat for Amur tigers and leopards disappeared. Read more
Poaching poses a huge threat for the survival of the tiger in the wild.
© WWF/Jeff Foott
Wildlife trade
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, loose border controls between China and Russia facilitated an increase in wildlife trade to feed the demand for traditional Chinese medicine. Products such as bear gall bladder, tiger paw and ginseng streamed across the border. Thanks to the work of WWF, TRAFFIC, and other conservation organizations, in the last decade the Russia-Chinese border has become less porous and border guards have been trained to identify illegal animal and plant products and prosecute offenders. While still a threat, poaching has declined.
Climate change
Climate change has and will continue to effect all 600,000 square miles of the Amur, but especially in the continental climes of Mongolia and the Daurian steppe. Recent climatic trends are reshaping migration routes of the threatened Mongolian gazelle and the freeze-up cycle within the Amur headwaters. Severe winters in the Russian Far East have driven down ungulate populations. Fewer ungulates mean fewer top-level predators like the Amur tiger and Amur leopard.
Dams
The Amur-Heilong is the longest free-flowing river in the Eastern Hemisphere. However, the rising demand for electricity in neighboring China has resulted in a number of potential hydroelectric dam proposals for the river — most notably in the pristine Khingan Gorge. Any dam on the river's main stem would permanently alter the hydrological patterns of the river and forever interrupt the migratory pattern of some of the region's most notable fish species such as the taimen and other salmon species.
The magnificent forests of the Amur-Heilong
are under increasing pressure due to population growth.
© WWF-Canon/Hartmut Jungius
Habitat loss
Habitat loss is a pervasive threat that is the forests and steppe of the Amur-Heilong. Intensive farming, logging and natural resource extraction - due in large part to population growth - have fragmented the forest into small patches. The loss of connected forest habitat has a negative impact on big carnivores like the Amur tiger and leopard that need large territories for successful reproduction.
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