The reserve is located in the north of Doujiangyan (Doujiang Dam) City. It is bordered at Wenchuan County in Aba Prefecture on the northwest, Baishuihe National Nature Reserve on the east and Loingchi Town and Hongkou Township of Doujiangyan City on the south. The reserve is only 60 kilometers from Chengdu urban area and lies in the transition zone from Chengdou Plain to Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, with geographical coordinates of 103°32''-103°43'' east longitude and 31°04''-31°22'' north latitude.
Longxi - Hongkou National Nature Reserve was set up in 1997 under the approval of the State Council as a nature reserve for forest and wild animals, with the conservation of rare and endangered wild animals and plants including Giant Pandas, Golden Monkeys, Takin, the Chinese Dove Tree and Katsura Tree and the forest ecological system as its main task. It has a reserve area of 310 square kilometers, including a core area of 203 square kilometers. It has a peripheral protection belt area of 117 square kilometers, forest area of 261.95 square kilometers, and 84.5%forest coverage.
Longxi--Hongkou National Nature Reserve--Rudimentary report on 5.12 Wenchuan Earthquake
Longxi--Hongkou National Nature Reserve, located on the links of Sichuan Basin, is on the west bank of upper reaches of Minjiang River, which belongs to Water Source Protection Zone at upper reaches of Minjiang River. The peak of the area is 4,582 meters at Guangguang Mountain. Forest coverage rate in the area is 90.37%. Locating at the interlace of three climate region like North Subtropical Belt and Tibet Plateau, the peculiar climate formed in the area has nurtured more than 2,500 rare plants like dove trees and yews as well as 25 spices of State first-class or second-class protective animals like giant pandas, golden monkeys and giant salamanders. There are as well more than 100 species of mammals and more than 250 species of birds. The broad protection zone is 427sq. km with residential population of more than 9000.
The 8.0-magnitude earthquake in Wenchuan County happened in an abrupt and strong way that the Longxi--Hongkou National Nature Reserve suffered a serious loss in the great earthquake. The earthquake has caused a great influence on species diversity protection, international communication, scientific research, ecology and environmental protection education as well as ecological tourism development.
There is only a mountain between the Longxi--Hongkou National Nature Reserve and the epicenter of the earthquake Yingxiu Town, so land slips happened in large quantities to the mountain body in the strong earthquake. The once green mountain covered by various trees has now naked with loess and collapsed hilltop. 10 to 20 percent of the forest in the Reserve had been destroyed. Infrastructures and office equipment in the Reserve had suffered serious damage with houses cracked or were unable to use in four basic protecting stations. 70,000 acreage of forest had been damaged. The accumulated economic lose is more than 413.8 million Yuan.
Except for two injuries, there is s no death or loss to in-service staff in the Reserve during the extreme disaster. However, two family numbers of our staff died in the earthquake.
The office building of the Longxi--Hongkou National Nature Reserve (2,646 square meters) had been seriously damaged or was unable to use; the loss on office equipments and flame arrester is 3.8 million Yuan. The houses, covering an area of 1221sqare meters in four stations, had been collapsed or were unable to use. 125 pieces of animal and plant specimen
had been damaged. 12.5 kilometer of patrol pavement had been destroyed. A fire watch tower had been damaged. 360 square meters of staff residential area had been collapsed and 3,700 square meters of staff residential area had been damaged. The disaster also caused damages to road ,which is 30 kilometers long. Four bridges and three culverts in the Reserve had been damaged. 2.1 kilometer of power transmission line, 5 electric transformers, 4 kilometer communication line and 11.7 kilometer water pipe in the forest area had been destroyed.
The 70,000-acreage forest had been seriously damaged. There are serious mountain massifs collapses, coasts, debris flow I the Reserve. Vegetation is severely damaged. Since the road broke off, so there is no way to the mountains for investigation. Therefore, the losses of wild animals (pandas included) species groups could not be calculated.
Pictures attached as follows:
Longchi Protection Station (Museums for Animal and Plant Specimen)
Longxi--Hongkou National Nature Reserve prior to the earthquakes
Longxi Protection Station (Museums for Animal and Plant Specimen)
