In June 2026, judicial and prosecutorial authorities from Guangdong and Guangxi agreed to deepen their cooperation in protecting the Yunkai Mountains. It is here, beneath overhanging branches and in the cool streams, that one of the world's rarest reptiles lives: the Chinese crocodile lizard.
The Chinese crocodile lizard
Often called the "panda of reptiles" due to its extreme rarity, this creature belongs to an ancient lineage that has existed since the age of the dinosaurs, around 200 million years ago. Today, it is found only in the mountainous regions of southern China and northern Vietnam.
The Chinese crocodile lizard
Two decades ago, the species' future looked bleak. According to a 2004 nationwide survey, the wild population in Guangdong and neighboring Guangxi had dropped to about 1,000 individuals. This decline was pushed to the brink by habitat degradation, human disturbance, and rampant poaching.
Today, their quiet survival is not just a miracle of nature. It is the result of a twenty-year effort in which conservationists, local villagers, and the justice system have come together to rewrite the fate of this ancient survivor.
A chance encounter
The turning point began in 2005 with a single fortuitous discovery, when forestry technician Wu Xiongguang joined a scientific survey in Linzhouding. At the time, Linzhouding was a proposed nature reserve nestled within the Yunkai Mountains. During the expedition, the team discovered an unusual lizard caught in a fishing net.
An expert later identified it as a Chinese crocodile lizard, a nationally protected species that had long gone largely unnoticed in the remote mountains where it lived.
"We started exploring captive breeding that same year," Wu says.
Wu Xiongguang explains the behavior of the Chinese crocodile lizard
The rescued lizard was a young female, less than two years old. With no textbook to follow, no established technology, or professional facilities, Wu had to improvise. He placed her in an old water jar, carefully recreating the damp, shaded environment of mountain streams.
A year later, while accompanying another survey team, he found a male crocodile lizard resting on a branch above a creek. The pair then became the foundation of Wu's breeding program.
In 2007, three offspring were born. This marked a small but significant milestone for a species whose biology remained poorly understood.
The friction of conservation
However, breeding the lizards was only half the battle. As the captive population increased, the conservation efforts became entangled in the complex realities of human society.
To expand the protective net, the local government introduced a subsidy program in 2008, encouraging villagers to rescue injured or displaced lizards. For a time, it worked beautifully. Local farmers regularly brought wounded or displaced reptiles back to the breeding base.
The Chinese crocodile lizard biological park in Linzhouding
However, other problems proved more difficult to resolve.
In 2009, authorities arrested a group of poachers. To muddy the investigation, the suspects tried to exploit legal loopholes at the time, falsely claiming they had sold the lizards to reserve staff.
Later, in 2017, a group of villagers filed complaints alleging that parts of their farmland had been incorporated into the reserve.
"We had to balance habitat protection with the concerns of local villages," Wu says.
In 2022, officials eventually introduced reform measures to address land-related issues within the reserve.
Erasing the boundaries for justice
Another challenge lay in the geography of the Yunkai Mountains themselves. The crocodile lizard's habitat straddles the provincial border between Guangdong and Guangxi.
The Yunkai Mountains
Wildlife and poachers move freely across the landscape. However, for human law enforcement, the border was a rigid legal barrier.
In 2023, authorities from both provinces established a joint cooperation framework to address the issue. The agreement allowed courts and procuratorates on both sides to share information, coordinate investigations, and handle environmental cases in a more unified manner.
Instead of waiting for cases to reach distant city courts, judges and prosecutors began taking the law into the jungle. They set up "circuit hearings" directly inside the nature reserve and established grassroots legal service stations.
Forestry teams and legal authorities of Maoming City conduct a joint patrol in the Yunkai Mountains
Furthermore, the legal strategy has shifted from mere punishment to "ecological restoration." Rather than relying solely on traditional fines or prison sentences, the judiciary has pioneered an innovative toolkit. Depending on the case, judges can order offenders to replant deforested slopes, undertake ecological service, or purchase carbon offsets.
The goal is clear: to protect the Yunkai Mountains, the habitat of the Chinese crocodile lizards, as a single ecosystem, rather than a patchwork divided by provincial borders.
Author | Chen Siyuan
Photo | Nanfang Plus
