No Tibetan flora or fauna have suffered extinction to date, an official with the region's environmental protection bureau said on Wednesday.

Many endangered species were under special state protection, he said. Red deer, generally considered by the international animal research community to have vanished, were spotted again in Tibet.

Biodiversity in Tibet was effectively protected, and biological variety was secure.

Statistics showed that there are more than 6,400 higher plants, over 2,300 species of insects, 799 species of wild vertebrates and nearly 125 varieties of wild animals under state special protection, accounting for one third of the state specially protected wildlife.

Establishing nature reserves is an important method adopted by Tibet to reinforce the work for ecological improvement and environment protection.

Since 1996, the central government has spent 368 million yuan (about US$44.3 million) in ecological construction in the Tibet autonomous region. Tibet has set up eight state and regional nature reserves, making one third of Tibet an enclave for plants and wildlife.

Local government has also set up series of organizations working on environmental supervision and law implementation. Local media and schools also participated in protecting Tibet's biodiversity.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)