The Hol Xil Nature Reserve in northwest China's Qinghai Province, home to Tibetan antelopes and other endangered species, will invites professional volunteers nationwide this year for related biological research and protection.

Cega, director of the high-altitude Hol Xil Nature Reserve Administration, said that with the development of ecological protection in the past few years, including the protection of Tibetan antelopes, the administration will put begin to put equal emphasis on crackdown on poaching, scientific research and tourism.

The volunteers will work in the nature reserve in phases and their study will cover the middle- and long-term plans to protect wild animals and plants, human breeding of rare animals including the Tibetan antelope and related biological and psychological research, ecological monitoring and protection, tourism and publicity for environmental protection, said Cega.

Since May 2002, the administration has invited 110 volunteers from across the country for 12 environmental protection programs in Hol Xil, known as the depopulated zone on the Tibet-Qinghai Plateau and home to Tibetan antelopes that live at an altitude between 4,000 and 5,500 meters above sea level.

The population of Tibetan antelopes has dropped from several million to below 100,000 in the past two decades due to extensive poaching and human encroachment of their habitat.

The Tibetan antelope has been recognized as an endangered species and protected under the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species since 1979 and listed as a Class-A protected wildlife in China's Wildlife Protection Law since it waspromulgated in 1988.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2006)