密歇根新闻广播 向萌萌哒的大熊猫学习如何与自然和谐共存

Jack¹ Liu of Michigan State University has spent some two decades studying pandas and people in a remote corner of China. His work has yielded powerful lessons in sustainability.

Liu is a human-environment scientist and a sustainability scholar at MSU, where he directs the Center for Systems Integration² and Sustainability.

He joined us today to talk about his panda research and what it means for people outside of the remote Wolong Nature Reserve.

Liu told us he went to the Wolong Nature Reserve to try to understand how humans and wildlife interact, and to learn how to best manage wildlife to ensure the survival of both humans and the natural environment around them.

"The Nature Reserve is for panda conservation," he said, adding that about 10% of the world's wild pandas live there. That's 150 to 160 pandas, "and also there are about 5,000 local people inside the reserve who depend on the forest and the land for their livelihood³."

This made it the perfect place to study coupled human and natural systems, the connection and relationship between humans and the natural systems of the planet.

Liu told us their first finding was "surprising." He said you'd usually expect that once an area was established as a nature reserve, the habitat would improve. But that wasn't the case.

"What we found was the opposite," Liu said. "We found that the habitat for the pandas actually was getting worse.… Also, inside the reserve, the habitat was worse than outside of the reserve."

The human population exploded after the reservation's establishment, he explained, which forced communities there to draw more on their environment.

"You have so many more people, so many more households. Then they need more land, more forest, which happened to be habitat for the pandas. So they have to cut down the forest, and that's destruction for the panda habitat," he said.

Liu told us the government and community didn't believe the results at first. They had devoted⁴ so much time, effort and resources to protecting the habitat, "and what reported was so counterintuitive," he said.

But after an investigation⁵, the government determined⁶ Liu's findings were accurate, and asked Liu's team to start looking for solutions.

"From that point on, there was a big turning point," Liu said.

He said his team worked with the government and local management to implement⁷ new policies that would help the people living in the reservation. By providing them with more conservation subsidies⁸, Liu explained, the local people would no longer need to remove trees from the panda habitat to meet their needs.

"People are happier, people live a better life, and then the habitat has also been recovering," he said.

Liu talks more about his work in our conversation above.

1 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

2 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

3 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

4 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

6 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

7 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

8 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》