Within the next 10 years, 15 new projects to be carried out nationwide are expected to bring more than one-third of the country’s endangered species of wild fauna and 45 percent of its rare flora under sound protection, the State Forestry Administration announced recently.

The proposed projects are specially designed to shield the following endangered species of wildlife: the giant panda, the crested ibis, the tiger, the Tibetan antelope, the golden monkey, the Chinese alligator, the elephant, the gibbon, forest musk deer, Tibetan gazelle, wild deer, wild crane, the tragopan and orchids, the administration said in its latest report.

This list includes only some of the wildlife covered by the administration’s newly completed program for the protection of China’s wild plants and animals and their habitats in the 2000-2050 period.

“The general target of our long-term program is to actively save China’s key endangered wild animals and plants by putting them under the category of top State protection,” the administration said.

It said that the existing state-owned natural reserves are to be extended and improved and new ones will be set up, including hunting-ban zones.

China has 6,266 species of vertebrates, or 10 per cent of the world’s total, of which about 500 are mammals, 1,244 birds, 376 reptiles, 284 amphibians and 3,862 fish.

China also has the world’s third largest number of plants in the world, over 30,000.

By the end of 1999, there were 1,146 nature reserves in China, of which over 100 are state level reserves. They cover an area of 88.1 million hectares, accounting for 8.8 per cent of China’s total territory.

In 10 years time, there will be 1,800 nature reserves with an area of 155 million hectares, or over 16 percent of the country’s total territory, according to the program.

By 2050, another 700 nature reserves will have been set up, bringing the total to 2,500 with an area of 173 million hectares, 18 per cent of China’s total territory.

Over the coming decade (2000-2010), the administration will focus its efforts on intensifying the protection of ecosystems in forests, deserts, wetlands and other areas with fragile environments, particularly the areas around the head streams of China’s main rivers, such as the Yangtze and Yellow rivers.

Thirty two wetland protective zones will also be set up to demonstrate how to utilize, protect, administrate, monitor and research such ecosystems -- home to more than 1,500 animal and bird species.

(China Daily)