China should intensify efforts to record the 80 percent of its flora and fauna that remains unknown before they become extinct, according to an American academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

 

Of China's abundant biological resources approximately 80 percent remains unrecorded, said Dr. Peter Raven, who also heads a botanical garden in Missouri. About half of these were likely to be gone within the century.

 

The American scientist made the statement at a two-day international symposium held over the weekend in Kunming, capital city of southwest China's Yunnan Province, on the bio-diversity and bio-geology of East Asia.

 

Extinction of biological resources was happening all over the world and those in China were no exception, said Dr. Raven.

 

He explained that there were around 10 million varieties of eucaryon plants on earth. One hundred of the species had been made extinct annually from 1600 to 1950. Now the extinction rate has risen to several thousand yearly and it will increase to 10,000 by the end of the current century, said Dr. Raven.

 

He cited rapid population growth as a decisive factor behind biological extinction. He said the world population stood at 1 billion in 1750 and is likely to increase to 10 billion in 2050. Demand for more resources from the growing population would further threaten the survival of more flora and fauna, Raven argued.

 

China has established 1,757 nature reserves and plans to increase the number to 2,500 by 2050.

 

To make conservation efforts more effective and efficient, Dr. Raven suggested China should improve administration, financing and management affairs. In the process of biological resource conservation China has to solve problems with energy shortages, water resources protection, rural poverty and air pollution, Dr. Raven said.

 

He also suggested that China set up a digital databank of its biological resources and establish a state-level commission to serve as a coordinator in its biodiversity protection efforts.

 

The international symposium was sponsored by the CAS' Kunming Flora Research Institute.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 18, 2006)