Sixty Chinese volunteers from across the country will clear traps set for Siberian tigers in northeast China this winter.

The trap-clearing campaign will be jointly sponsored by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), a New York-based non-profitable organization, the Heilongjiang Provincial Administration of Forest Industry, the Harbin Daily Newspaper Group, and an online news company, www.harbinnews.com., said Wang Lin, head of the trap-clearing team.

From Jan. 7 to 14, 60 volunteers will clear iron wire ring traps -- set by poachers to catch wild Siberian tigers during the winter -- from areas where the tigers roam in Heilongjiang, Wang said.

The 60 volunteers, aged between 19 and 65, were selected among more than 300 applicants across the China, including public servants, university students, teachers, journalists, doctors and company bosses, Wang said.

"I have been engaged in wildlife protection for more than three decades. It is an arduous but meaningful job," said 65-year-old volunteer Zhang Yongming, a retired forestry official in Heilongjiang.

The Siberian tiger, an endangered species, is a subspecies of tiger that once roamed western, central Asia and eastern Russia.

China has only about 20 wild Siberian tigers left, among which eight to 10 are in Jilin Province and 10 to 14 are in Heilongjiang.

Iron wire ring traps