China has built a monitoring network for engendered Siberian tigers and Amur leopards, covering more than 12,000 square kilometers in the provinces of Jilin and Heilongjiang, after nearly 20 years' efforts, said an official on Sunday.

Jiang Guangshun, deputy director of Feline Research Center of the Natural Forestry and Grassland Administration, made the remarks at the International Forum on Tiger and Leopard Transboundary Conservation in Harbin, Heilongjiang province.

With cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data, Jiang and his team have recorded more than 4,000 infrared camera video clips of tigers and more than 600 clips of leopards, according to Jiang's report about conservation and management of Siberian tigers and Amur leopards at the forum.

"By comparing the data of tigers and leopards of China and Russia from 2013 to 2015, we confirmed that 17 tigers and 42 leopards are shared populations of both China and Russia," he said. "Ecological environment has greatly improved since the natural forest protection project started in 1998 and all commercial logging has been stopped, which helped in protecting of tigers and leopards."

"However, we still face great challenges in the following areas," he said. "Distribution pattern of the two species suggests that the protection of the Amur tiger and leopard requires the establishment of a network of protected patch sites, the construction of international and domestic corridors, and the formation of a permeable landscape. It needs attention and support from all over the world."

"The protection also needs an international research team to improve the level of the global transboundary data and management of tigers and leopards," Jiang added.

Focusing on big cats all around the world, especially tiger and leopard populations, the two-day event attracted more than 300 representatives from 19 regional countries, including Nepal, Russia, Vietnam, and 10 international organizations, including World Wildlife Fund.

Representatives will have discussions on monitoring technology, restoration of populations and habitats, landscape resource allocation in protected areas, conflict resolution and other related technical and policy issues.

Furthermore, the establishment of international exchange and cooperation mechanism for cross-border protection of tigers and leopards is expected to get important progress in the future.