Xiang Xiufa, a former fish farmer, is racing against time to
protect rare and endangered plants in the vicinity of the Three
Gorges reservoir.
The 44-year-old has already preserved nearly 10,000 rare plants,
including 176 species, in his botanical garden. It has been a drain
on his time and money but worth it, he said.
"For pride and the good of future generations I cannot give
up."
The Three Gorges area is the natural habitat of more than 500
rare species. About 200 of these will be submerged when dam
construction is finished in 2009 and reservoir water levels reach
175 m, experts with the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said.
"This area is one of the nation's most important botanical
bases. We should do anything we can to preserve and protect these
treasures," CAS botanist Li Zhenyu said yesterday.
"Each [plant] means some potential solution for a future natural
or health problem. We may suffer great losses if we just sit by,"
he said.
The State Forestry Administration and the Three Gorges Project
Construction Committee has spent millions of yuan preserving
bio-diversity in the region over the past years.
Scientists at Wuhan Botanic Garden (WBG), with CAS, have
transplanted more than 100 species to reserves in Hubei Province's
Yichang and Wuhan.
CAS scientists in Beijing have set up seed banks and frozen
genes to aid long-term preservation.
"Our institute has conserved 70 to 80 percent of the endangered
plant species in the Three Gorges area," WBG's Wu Jinqing said.
"To protect plants in the Three Gorges is an arduous, long-term
task. We need to study these plants," he said.
(China Daily September 11, 2007)
