The second reserve will cover 20,000 hectares of forest in China and stretch across 35,000 hectares in Laos, according to the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve Administration.
It will expand the cross-border reserve area to over 100,000 hectares after connecting it with the first nature reserve that was founded in 2009, which covers area of 54,000 hectares.
Yang Songhai, director of the reserve administration, said it will connect the separated tropical rain forest along the border into a bigger, better habitat and provide passages for the migration of large animals and other wildlife.
"The reserve is a part of the efforts to set up a safer corridor for the migration of the Asian elephant," Yang said.
He said the graceful creature has been endangered due to mounting pressure from economic and social progress, as well as increasing human mobility.
The reserve will also further expand the scale of bilateral cooperation in order to intensify the protection of biodiversity, according to Yang.
About 250 Asian elephants, the largest land animal in Asia, live in the wilderness of southwestern China's Yunnan Province. The elephants frequently cross the bordering forest.
In 2009, the two countries signed an agreement to establish the first cross-border nature reserve to protect rare animals like the Asian elephant and Indo-Chinese tiger.
The two sides have cooperated on technical training and research on human-elephant conflict and resolution. Read the full report here.
Source: Bernama, Kunming.
