The remote mountains of China's Shangri-La County are being mapped, thanks to a new GPS database being developed by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

The database, once fully compiled, will help local WWF staff and their community partners gather crucial information for ecotourism projects as well as monitor environmental and ecological developments in the region.

The new system will take an holistic approach to its monitoring, taking into account all aspects of the communities' interaction with their natural surroundings.

Education will play an integral role in the monitoring process as locals have already identified this as a key tool in order to develop both awareness of local wildlife and also to generate income for the families.

Lloyd Raleigh, a film and GPS expert who is helping with the implementation of mapping system in Shangri-La outlined the reasons for such a tool, "GPS mapping allows us to analyse our project progress in a spatial manner, an important aspect of conservation monitoring."

The region of Shangri-La has been named by WWF as one of the Global 200 ecoregions–large areas of outstanding biodiversity, valuable for conservation and sustainable development. Endangered class 1 protected species like the snow leopard, red panda and black-necked crane are native to the region.

WWF's Education and Capacity Building Programme has been working in the Shangri-La area for the last 8 years, helping the communities to develop a more empowered voice in making decisions that will ultimately help preserve both the ecological and cultural diversity so unique to this colouful region. Previous projects have included biogas installation, training workshops in Nature Reserve management and institutional ecotourism development.

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