CCTV's News 1+1 examined human-wildlife coexistence at the park. Wild Siberian tigers rose from 27 to 72 and Amur leopards from 42 to 115.
On October 17, CCTV's News 1+1 interviewed Duan Zhaogang, head of the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park administration, on how people can live alongside tigers and leopards. According to the report, wild Siberian tigers rose from 27 to 72 and Amur leopards from 42 to 115, figures from a joint China-Russia count at the end of 2025.
광고 문의 · 300×250The park runs 63 monitoring projects under an integrated sky-and-ground system, with individual identification accuracy above 90%. Records include about 30,000 tiger and 40,000 leopard detections and more than 200,000 of wild boar. The animals' range has expanded northwest from the southeast by over 300 kilometers in a straight line, covering more than 80% of the park, about 11,000 square kilometers.
Habitat Restoration and Cross-Border Cooperation
Restoration measures include reclaiming over 2,000 hectares of encroached forest, ending 276 stream-valley contracts, closing 156 mining rights, replanting 600,000 mu of forest understory, and opening five wildlife corridors. Xinhua reported that Dongning in Heilongjiang recorded over 300 tiger and over 1,300 leopard detections, with 420 cameras and 72 video systems deployed.
Combined with Russia's Land of the Leopard National Park, the protected area totals about 17,000 square kilometers. The two sides removed 290 stretches of border fencing, but Duan said differences in monitoring technology, disease control, forest-fire policy and laws mean a unified joint protection mechanism has not yet formed.
Compensation and Livelihoods
Systems to reduce human-animal conflict are in place. Compensation covers personal injury and property damage in the park and surrounding areas, including crop damage by wild boar; livestock and crop losses are the most common claims. The park pays accident insurance for ecological patrol staff.
On income, a one household, one post scheme has each household nominate a member as an ecological warden, adding about 10,000 yuan per household a year. Collective-forest compensation was raised from 16 to 32 yuan per mu per year, and over 77 million yuan has been paid on 70,000 hectares. Tiger-friendly industries such as beekeeping and wild medicinal herbs are supported.
Tourism is banned in core zones, while general control zones allow eco-tourism, with four premium routes launched this year. The report did not examine longer-term questions of prey and habitat as tiger numbers rise.
