On the morning of 28 June, the annual meeting of the “South China Karst” world natural heritages was held in Xiannvshan Mt., Wulong County, Chongqing Municipality. 

Relevant officials from Libo County World Natural Heritage Management (Guizhou province), Wulong World Natural Heritage Management (Chongqing Municipality, and Stone Forest World Natural Heritage Management (Yunnan Province), attended the meeting.

In order to exchange experiences on world natural heritage protection, address major issues on protection and exploitation, boost the sustainable development of the “South China Karst”, and upgrade China’s protection and utilisation of world natural heritages, Wulong County-the sponsor-had also invited related experts and scholars from home and abroad to attend the meeting. These experts and scholars have been renowned in such fields as heritage protection and protection planning.

The meeting has been normalised as an exchange mechanism since the success of the joint efforts of Libo County, Shilin County and Wulong County, applying for world natural heritage status.

Wulong County has spent great efforts strengthening protection since it was inscribed into the World Natural Heritage List. In 2009, it launched the 18-million-yuan ($2.833million; €2.248 million) infrastructure project for protecting and managing its Karst natural heritages.

According to the project, which aims to realise overall monitoring on the air, water, and ecological environment of the heritage sites, an technologically advanced, operationally reliable, secure, fully functional and widely used comprehensive application platform will be set up, integrating scientific observation, environmental monitoring, and informational statistics and issuing etc.

Simultaneously, Wulong County has established a county-level World Natural Heritage Management Commission (Commission), which is mainly staffed with law enforcement personnel, and joined by such departments as Police, Commerce and Industry Administration, Bureau of Land and Resources, Bureau of Forestry, and Bureau of Construction etc.

The Commission has brought under effective protection the heritage resources of Wulong County, by carrying out a series of management such as: (1)-strengthening routine patrol and dealing with illegal activities within the scenic area; (2)-on a long-term basis, conducting overall and comprehensive punishments on illegal activities, such as illegal quarries and activities that damage the water resources and vegetation; (3)-Investigating and punishing serous criminal cases; and (4)-correcting violations inside the scenic area.

As a result of the meeting, in order to escalate the standards of investigation, research, management, exploitation, monitoring and conservation concerning Wulong’s Karst natural heritages, the IKRC (International Karst Research Centre of UNESCO) and KRI (Karst Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences) launched to establish the Research Base for Wulong Karst Landforms at Xiannvshan Mt.

Related news
According to the Provisions on the Conservation of Karst World Natural Heritage of Chongqing Municipality, Wulong County has determined each 17 June as the World Natural Heritage Protection Day; and in order to arouse public awareness of the world natural heritages and relevant protection, various events will be organised on that day.

In August 2009 in Beijing, the “South China Karst” World Natural Heritage sites and the US Mammoth Cave signed to become Sister Parks.

On 27 June, 2007, the Furongdong Karst Cave of Wulong County and the Krams Cave of France became Sister Parks.

And what the Mammoth Cave, the Krams Cave, and the Furongdong Cave have jointly established is an exchange platform-which plays an internationally exemplary role in respect of management and protection of world natural heritages.