The Hanma Biosphere Reserve is located in

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

and encompasses a significant part of the

boreal forest Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruc ...

(Taiga) found in China. The reserve covers a range of forest and wetland ecosystems rich in biological diversity, including many types of endangered and rare species. Ecological interference by humans is minimal, resulting in abundant natural resources and the high quality of local vegetation and ecology. The cold temperate coniferous forest represents the most well-preserved forest system in China and is of significant scientific value. The local wetlands include Larix gmelinii swamps and Carex wetlands and have retained their original natural landscapes and wetland functions. The biosphere reserve plays a significant role in protecting water and rare wildlife resources, ensuring water purification, and maintaining the ecological balance of the

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is the northernmost and easternmost province ...

area and Jiliuhe River.

Ecology

The reserve is situated at a high altitude on the western part of the main ridge of the northern Greater Khingan Mountains. The surrounding mountains form a flat valley stretching north to south for 56 km and 32 km wide. The reserve includes a wide variety of wetlands covering more than 20,000 ha, including river wetlands, lake wetlands, marsh wetlands, forest swamp, bush swamp and herbaceous swamp. The reserve also belongs to a coniferous forest ecosystem amid tundra mountains. The main vegetation forms within the reserve are Taiga forest and

coniferous forest Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All exta ...

including Pinus pumila elfin and Pinus sylvestris. Hanma has a highly abundant biological diversity. Typical species include the

Siberian salamander ''Salamandrella keyserlingii'', the Siberian salamander, is a species of salamander found in Northeast Asia. It lives in Wet woodland, wet woods and riparian groves. Distribution It is found primarily in Siberia east of the Sosva River and t ...

(Salamandrella keyserlingii),

wolverine The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscul ...

(Gulo gulo),

moose The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult ma ...

(Alces alces cameloides),

Siberian musk deer The Siberian musk deer (''Moschus moschiferus'') is a musk deer found in the mountain forests of Northeast Asia. It is most common in the taiga of southern Siberia, but is also found in parts of Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Manchuria and the Korean ...

(Moschus moschiferus), sable (Martes zibellina),

great grey owl The great grey owl (''Strix nebulosa'') (also great gray owl in American English) is a very large owl, documented as the world's largest species of owl by length. It is distributed across the Northern Hemisphere, and it is the only species in th ...

(Strix nebulosa) and other near arctic animals.

Socio-economic characteristics

The biosphere reserve contains the last Reindeer tribe in China distributed in and around the transition area. Thirty

Evenks The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki based on their endonym )Autonym: (); russian: Эвенки (); (); formerly known as Tungus or Tunguz; mn, Хамниган () or Aiwenji () are a Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Eve ...

people owning about 300

reindeers Reindeer (in North American English, known as caribou if wild and ''reindeer'' if domesticated) are deer in the genus ''Rangifer''. For the last few decades, reindeer were assigned to one species, ''Rangifer tarandus'', with about 10 subspe ...

live in the transition area as permanent inhabitants. However, the elderly and children often leave the reserve to obtain medical treatment and education, and also leave for warmer climates during the winter. The tribe's lifestyle based on hunting and living on grassland has endured for centuries and persists to this day. Their social development has resulted in the creation of remarkable minority culture based upon Shamanism, which has given local hunters a deep belief in worshipping nature and protecting natural beings. Their religious traditions, agricultural production, ways of living and unique cultural customs have left a profound mark on the Hanma Biosphere Reserve and play an important role in the region’s natural protection. The Evenks' love and passion for nature, forests and lakes have been instrumental in maintaining the state of the forest. Approximately 43,536 people live around the periphery of the Hanma reserve, including 17,641 people at Jinhe Town, 19,363 people at Ah Longshan Town and 6,532 people at Niuerhe Town. These communities rely on the natural resources of the reserve in terms of ecosystem products and services, for example, gathering and selling berries and fungi from the transition area of the reserve.

References

{{Free-content attribution, , title = UNESCO - MAB Biosphere Reserves Directory , author = , publisher = UNESCO , source= , documentURL = http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/asia-and-the-pacific/china/hanma/ , License statement URL = http://www.unesco.org/new/en/natural-sciences/environment/ecological-sciences/biosphere-reserves/world-network-wnbr/wnbr/ , license = CC-BY-SA IGO 3.0 Biosphere reserves of China Inner Mongolia Protected areas established in 2015 Ramsar sites in China