China will earmark 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) in the next five to 10 years to protect the environment at Mount Helan which borders the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Mount Helan provides a natural barrier against cold fronts from Siberia and protects the Ningxia Plain from three encroaching desert areas.

The Mount Helan Nature Reserve, covering 157,800 hectares(389,924 acres), is home to 868 different animals and plants on the state protection list. It is known as a flora and fauna gene bank in northwest China.

However, the environment at Mount Helan has deteriorated in recent years due to less precipitation and indiscriminate logging. 　　

To avoid overgrazing, the local government decided to move 145,000 sheep out of the nature reserve and to prohibit hunting, logging or human activities within the reserve.

As the environment improves, experts predict Ningxia's dried-uprivers will begin flowing again.

(Xinhua News Agency July 3, 2002)