Spanning two provinces

According to Liu Zhifa, deputy head of the Guangdong Nanling National Nature Reserve's publicity and education department, the Nanling reserve borders the Mangshan National Nature Reserve in Hunan along the ridgeline of the Nanling Mountains, which straddle both provinces.

"We are on the southern slope and they are on the northern slope," Liu said. "We are protecting the same ecosystem. So a bird race held in both reserves will mean a more comprehensive bird survey for the area."

He traveled between the provinces four or five times to coordinate the event with his counterparts in the Mangshan reserve.

Finally, on the morning of April 26, the carnival kicked off in the Mangshan reserve in Yizhang county, Hunan. Besides the 96 contestants for the 84-hour bird race, bird experts invited by the organizing committee as judges of the race, rangers from both reserves and hundreds of local people attended the opening ceremony held in front of the Mangshan National Forest Park entrance.

Zou Bangxian, an official from the Forestry Administration of Guangdong Province, expressed his hopes for the event to serve as a catalyst for fostering greater collaboration between the provinces in areas such as ecological corridor development along the Nanling Mountains, coordinated species protection and shared natural education.

"By leveraging the ecological advantages of the Nanling Mountains for high-quality development, we expect that the event can contribute the wisdom of Guangdong and Hunan to national ecological civilization construction ... and deepen ecological cooperation between the two provinces through concrete actions," he said.

The management bureaus of the two reserves signed a strategic cooperation framework agreement, outlining their commitment to comprehensive cooperation in resource management, scientific research and monitoring, public education, and outreach and community engagement.

"In the future, I think we will approach our conservation issues with a wider perspective," said Li Yonghui, Party secretary of the Mangshan reserve. "We will consider solutions that encompass the entire mountain range rather than focusing on individual reserves."