The Chinese government will spend 50 million yuan (US$6.02 million)
on building an Asian elephant breeding center in southwest China's
Yunnan Province, to better protect the wild creatures from
extinction.
Preparations were going well for the project, which was expected to
start this year, said a forestry bureau official with the Dai
Autonomous Prefecture of Xishuangbanna.
The Asian elephant breeding center will be located in the forest in
Xishuangbanna, known as the "kingdom of wild animals and plants".
It was made a national nature reserve in 1958.
Chinese zoologists will first choose 50 quality Asian elephants and
help them breed in the forest.
China began artificially breeding Asian elephants in 1994 in the
zoo at Kunming,
capital of Yunnan
Province. Six Asian elephants have been born there so far.
Xishuangbanna has the largest area of tropical rainforest in China.
Thanks to the Chinese government's efforts, the acreage of forest
in Xishuangbanna has grown from 180,000 hectares to nearly 250,000
hectares at present.
Xishuangbanna's forest is now home to more than 5,000 varieties of
higher plants, accounting for half of China's total, according to
Chinese zoologists and botanists. Of the plant types, 341 are rare
plants and 58 are endangered species under top national protection.
Xishuangbanna also houses over 2,000 species of animals, including
600-plus kinds of vertebrates.
About 300 Asian elephants live in the area all year around, latest
figures show.
(
July 20, 2002)