Sources from the State Forestry Bureau said in Guangzhou Tuesday
that, to date, a total of 1,405 nature reserves have been
established in China.
The nature reserves, covering a combined area of 109 million
hectares, have effectively protected 85 percent of China's wildlife
species and 65 percent of its wild floral species.
Ma
Fu, deputy director of the State Forestry Bureau, said China has
also made great strides in protecting internationally endangered
biological species by signing agreements with a large number of
countries to mutually protect such rare animal species as migratory
birds and tigers.
According to him, China's nature reserves have won wide acclaim
from the international community. Twenty-two Chinese nature
reserves have been listed in the "human and biosphere" protection
network sponsored by United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and 21 have been registered with
the internationally significant swamp directory.
In
the future, China will quicken the pace of building nature reserves
at the headwaters of its major rivers, as well as in the country's
major forests and swamps.
(Xinhua News Agency December 17, 2002)