NGO raises funds for Mongolian horse

Beijing's environmentalists are taking quick action in support of one Mongolian's risky endeavor to preserve a horse and all the bigger stakes the animal may represent.

A fundraising drive was initiated Monday by Beijing-based environmental watchdog Green Beagle to help a horse breeder out of usury, explained its director Feng Yongfeng.

Baoyindalai, from Hexigten Qi in Chifeng of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, took a 60,000 yuan ($8,838) loan from a local usurer on July 27 to buy seven iron hoof horses, Feng said.

"By October 27 the accumulated interest on the loan will have reached 18,000 yuan ($2,651.4)," Feng said. "But he can still get out of it in the first month of the loan if we help."

"It's just the clock is ticking."

Baoyindalai has 90 sheep and some cattle. He would be lucky to make 45,000 yuan ($6,628.5) selling his animals in the fall, according to Feng.

The Mongolian risks going bankrupt for breeding horses, to him a symbol of his people's lost way of life.

"The immediate goal is to collect 60,000 yuan for Baoyindalai so he can cancel the loan," Feng wrote in his Qzone blog post. "If things go well, we will continue to raise more funds to set up a board for sustainable horse breeding on Baoyindalai's pasture."

Animal husbandry is under policy restraints because of apparent environmental pres-sures. The local government allows only one horse per household in the belief that horses destroy pastures, according to Green Beagle volunteer Lü Yan, who spent two months studying environmental issues in Chifeng and Xilingol League, Inner Mongolia.

For Lü, keeping horses on the steppe has significance far beyond preserving a tradition for a Mongolian.

"Pasture deterioration has as much to do with politics as it does with economics," Lü said.

To end the old nomadic way of life, Lü said, China started building settlements for sheep and cattle herders in 1983. Fences were erected to limit and confine grazing.

The Green Beagle environmentalists have raised 3,000 yuan ($441.9) as of press time, according to Zhou Wei, the accountant for the fundraising campaign.

Those interested in helping may go to Green Beagle's Chinese language site www.bjep. org.cn for more information.