Before ascending, every item carried by climbers — from a bottle of mineral water to a bag of biscuits — must be registered. Upon descent, each is checked individually, and all packaging must be brought back in full, “not even a bottle cap can be left on the mountain.”
In recent years, the Mount Everest National Nature Reserve has signed such a special contract with professional mountaineers.
Cao Tiantang, director of the Reserve’s Ecological Research and Conservation Center, explained in an exclusive interview with China News Service in Lhasa on the 21st that Everest Base Camp sits at an altitude of 5,200 meters, while professional climbers ascend beyond 6,000 meters, making trash cleanup extremely difficult. The strict terms of the contract aim to eliminate trash residues and protect the high-altitude ecological environment.
The Mount Everest National Nature Reserve was established in 1989, upgraded to a national-level reserve in 1994, and in the same year was included in the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme network.
This contract is just one of many ecological protection measures for Everest. At the Tibet Autonomous Region Environmental Protection Conference held that day, Cao Tiantang shared a series of stories about Everest with reporters.
In recent years, the number of tourists visiting Everest has increased year by year. Data provided by Cao Tiantang shows that in 2011, Everest received 46,000 visitors, while from January to August this year, the number was 33,000. This makes ecological protection on Everest critically important.
Everest Base Camp is the climbing destination for most tourists. Cao Tiantang explained that the local government has implemented measures such as “inspection, awareness campaigns, and off-site waste disposal,” stepping up education and outreach for general visitors, installing eco-friendly toilets at the base camp, and transporting all waste outside the protected area for processing.
The Ecological Research and Conservation Center where Cao Tiantang works has also collaborated with domestic and international environmental organizations to provide multiple training sessions for local residents on topics such as tour guiding, ecological conservation, and emergency medical response. These efforts have significantly raised environmental awareness among people living within the reserve.
“Before the establishment of the reserve, illegal logging and poaching were quite serious in this region,” said Cao Tiantang. Over the past 23 years since the reserve was established, activities such as illegal logging and poaching have been prohibited, and these unlawful acts have now been largely eradicated.
The reserve is home to first-class nationally protected animals such as snow leopards, Himalayan tahr, the Himalayan subspecies of the capped langur, and Tibetan antelope, as well as key protected plants including Himalayan longleaf pine and Himalayan spruce.
Having worked in the reserve for nine years, Cao Tiantang has witnessed the achievements of ecological conservation in recent years: “Wildlife was rarely seen in the reserve before, but now it’s common to spot groups of Tibetan antelope and kiang.”
