The "Heilongjiang Green Ambassador Summer Camp", sponsored by World Wildlife Fund (WWF), set out for investigation of Heilongjiang River basin Saturday in Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province.

Eugene Simonou, advisor of WWF Amur/Heilongjiang River Basin Program, said that with the theme of "joining hands to protect the Heilongjiang green belt", the summer camp invited nine teams of university students from China and the Far East region of Russia.

They will make on-the-spot social and ecological investigations along the global ecological priority area -- Heilongjiang River valley.

As a part of the serial activities of "Heilongjiang-Gift to the Earth," the summer camp is subsidized by WWF and local governments along the Heilongjiang River valley of China and Russia.

Members of the summer camp will call for the governments and organizations to join hands in protecting the Heilongjiang River valley and share their experience of cross-border environmental protection.

Before the start of the summer camp, WWF has received 15 schemes of environmental protection program from the two countries. Nine excellent schemes (with three from Russia) got the sponsorship to start their investigation in Da Hingganling Mountains region, Xingkai Lake, Changbai Mountains and other regions in Heilongjiang River basin.

Zhu Chunquan, forest program director of WWF China, highly praised these university students for their active engagement in international environmental protection activities.

He said the protection of bio-diversity should not be separated by boundaries. Governments, companies and institutes in the region should work with international organizations to carry out bio-diversity conservation and build the "Heilongjiang green belt."

The Heilongjiang/Amur eco-region is considered as one of WWF's five top global priority areas. With an area of 1.84 million square kilometers, the region is also recognized as a key representative area of bio-diversity conservation.

Although there are no irreversible human destroy in the Heilongjiang River valley, the key species and their habitats in the region are threatened by commercial logging, forest fires, wetland irrigation, over-fishing, pollution and others human activities. The issue has aroused the attention of experts and international organizations.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2005)