A total of 191 agricultural wild plant species are at risk of
extinction, Chinese experts have warned, calling for more
protective measures to be taken.
A
report in yesterday's People's Daily said that agricultural
wild plants, such as wild rice, wild bean and wild fruits, not only
provide people with food, nutrition and medicine, but also help
conserve water and soil.
More importantly, agricultural wild plants are an essential
research material in genetic breeding and biotechnology.
However, statistics show agricultural wild plant species are
decreasing at a surprisingly rapid rate, the report said.
For example, in 1978, there were nine wild paddy fields in
Dongxiang, in East China's Jiangxi Province, while only two of them
now remain.
More than 70 per cent of wild paddies in China have been destroyed,
the report quoted Pang Hanhua, a paddy expert with the China
Academy of Agricultural Sciences, as saying.
Pang said although wild paddies were listed by the government in
1992 as an endangered species, people still attach insufficient
importance to it and the country has not established any
conservation areas for wild paddies.
Fang Jiahe, another expert at the academy, was quoted as saying the
protection of wild plant species in China is in its initial stages
and the current situation is not satisfactory.
Fang said the country is short of funds for a nationally
coordinated campaign to protect wild plant species, adding that
China also lacks relevant polices and regulations in the field.
To
counteract the looming crisis, the State Forestry Administration
last year launched a project to build conservation areas for wild
animals and plants, the report said.
The report called for public awareness to be raised to protect wild
plants.
Under the project, 90 per cent of key wild plants in China will be
effectively protected by 2010.
In
another development earlier this year, the Ministry of Agriculture
started a special plan for the protection of agricultural wild
plants, which includes the issuing of a list of key wild plants
that must be protected.
(China Daily December 13, 2002)