Nan'ao county in south China's Guangdong province has launched a marine biodiversity protection project focusing on the Chinese white dolphin, with the approval from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).
More than US$500,000 from the Global Environment Fund will be injected into the five-year-long protection project, sources with Nan'ao county authorities noted on Tuesday.
According to the project agreement, the project will give priority to the protection of endangered species, including the Chinese white dolphin.
The Chinese white dolphin, measuring about 2 to 2.5 meters in length, is a unique local species which inhabits the tropical and subtropical belts of south China's Fujian and Guangdong provinces and Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. The waters adjacent to Nan'ao county have long been an ideal habitat for the Chinese white dolphin, said the local source.
There are four biodiversity protection projects in China which have been approved simultaneously by the UNDP.
(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2003)
