It was this spot where the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, at the initiative of the local Taoist community and co-funded by the Ecological Management Foundation, built the Tiejia Taoist Ecology Temple for the worship of the three gods of Mount Taibai and an Ecology Education Center to help stimulating what had been such an important part of Taoism since ancient times, namely preserving the natural environment. In 2004, the World Wildlife Fund appealed to the Alliance of Religions and Conservation for help because they wanted to build an eco-resort on Mount Taibai and had discovered the seven rooms at the site of the old Tiejiashu Temple. Earlier, the World Wildlife Fund had already built a number of panda sanctuaries to protect the environment of the Qinling panda. The eco-resort was now supposed to start generating income as a means of financing those sanctuaries. The World Wildlife Fund asked the Alliance of Religions and Conservation to investigate. The Alliance of Religions and Conservation's secretary-general Martin Palmer met the vice-abbot of the Louguan Tai Temple, Master Ren Xingzhi. Both quickly saw the opportunities for a fruitful and sustainable partnership. These meetings gave rise to the plans for a Tiejia Taoist Ecology Temple with an Ecology Education Center next to it. To help finance the execution of the plans, an appeal was made to Allerd Stikker, founder and chairman of Ecological Management Foundation. Since the inauguration in 2007, the Tiejia Taoist Ecology Temple with the Ecology Education Center have been the epicenter of an effort to make China's Taoist temples more sustainable and to create an awareness of sustainability issues.