Training and development are seen as vitally important for the development of biodiversity conservation in the Gaoligong Shan (GLGS). Training and development is centered on two methods of building expertise.
First, and more importantly, is the production of local expertise at the practical level. In this we seek to build up local forestry and other local workers in their ability to inventory biodiversity that they are coming into constant contact with.
The second method is to develop local and international interest at the academic level so that rigorous investigation of the biodiversity of the GLGS is encouraged. To these ends we engage local and foreign workers at all levels from field assistants, students, graduate students, post doctoral researchers, and researchers who have not previously worked in the region but have expertise to bring to the quest.
In addition to this, we also undertake community outreach and education whenever possible. These include meetings with regional and local government officials, village committees, schools, and generally just explaining our activities to interested parties. By doing this we are spreading knowledge of the importance of the GLGS to world biodiversity and conservation efforts. Many people who have not had the opportunity to travel do not realize that their area is very special. Once the this is accepted local pride is a powerful force for conservation. Outreach efforts have made use of local television newscasts and have been seen throughout China on many occasions. Below is a picture from a middle school talk given by the California Academy of Sciences' Dr. Nina Jablonski and Dr. Larry Flynn of Harvard that was filmed and shown on local and national TV news stations.
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Training Efforts to Date
2003
In 2003, the ichthyology/herpetology field team, mammalogy/ornithology field team, and paleontology field team trained several nature reserve personnel in the collection, preservation, and cataloguing of specimens of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and fossils during the fall expeditions.
2004
The Spring botany field team trained one M.S. student and one Ph. D. student from KIB and 6 local assistants from the local forestry government in plant specimen collecting and pressing and general botany knowledge during the Spring 2004 expedition, and trained two M.S. students from KIB and 12 local assistants from the local forestry government in plant specimen collecting and pressing and general botany knowledge during the Fall 2004 expedition.
The herpetology field team trained one KIZ graduate student in the collection, preservation, and cataloguing of specimens of reptiles and amphibians during the Spring 2004 expedition.
The Palentology has trained members of the Baoshan Museum, and the Baoshan, Shidian, Yangnin, Cultural Relics Bureaus in fossil collection, preservation, preparation and the methods used to find, clean and preserve micromammal faunas.
The paleontology team helped to train one Stanford graduate student, and provided training and employment to two technicians, who catalogued fossil and archaeological materials.
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