|
The Laohu Valley Reserve (LVR) is a nature reserve located near Philippolis in the Free State of South Africa.〔(Rare tigers raised in Africa to be rewilded in China )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://theweekly.co.za/?p=2545 )〕 It is a roughly 350 square kilometer private reserve. It has been created with the aims of nurturing captive-born South China tigers (''Panthera tigris amoyensis'') in South Africa and eventually releasing them back into the wild of China. It is also aimed to restore the South African biodiversity conservation within the Laohu Valley Reserve in general. ==History== The Laohu Valley Reserve was created in 2002 out of 17 defunct sheep farms,〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://english.savechinastigers.org/node/218 )〕 and efforts to return the overgrazed land to natural status are ongoing. The South China tigers at LVR for rewilding are kept confined to a tiger-proof camp complex of roughly 1.8 square kilometers, with other areas of the reserve being used to protect native South African species. The word "laohu" is a Chinese term for tiger.〔http://www.laohuvalleyreserve.org/background/〕 Li Quan initially enlisted the help of John Varty (wildlife filmmaker) and Dave Varty (eco-tourism developer) in South Africa to assist in the rehabilitation process.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://www.nomadtours.co.za/article_2006-6-2_5.html )〕 However, Li Quan and her husband, investment banker Stuart Bray, became concerned that the Vartys were misusing the project's funds to buy land for themselves. Later, in July 2002, the Vartys admitted to borrowing a small portion of Bray's money.〔 After a legal audit, it was discovered that over R5-million had been borrowed by the Vartys, having been used to pay off the Vartys' Londolozi Productions debt on unauthorized salaries. Some of the money was also said to have gone into the Vartys' personal loan accounts and towards paying off their Betty's Bay seaside property.〔 Finally, in October 2002, a few weeks before an agreement was due to be signed with Chinese authorities after the Chinese Wildlife Department began to recognize the project's conservation value, the Vartys pulled out of the project.〔 John Varty has since founded his own "tiger rewilding" project, Tiger Canyons, also near Philippolis, using the land he acquired using Bray's funds. However, Tiger Canyons uses unendangered hybrid breeds of tigers and has been criticized as having no conservation value and only being used for the purpose of creating the film ''Living with Tigers'', which would air on Discovery Channel.〔(【引用サイトリンク】url=http://lists.envirolink.org/pipermail/ar-news/Week-of-Mon-20030901/005990.html )〕 Due to the action spearheaded by Save China's Tigers (SCT), other efforts to convert defunct sheep farms into wildlife farms in this area have been gaining speed. In other words, SCT is a leader in restoring South African biodiversity to the area of Phillippolis of Free State in South Africa. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Laohu Valley Reserve」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|