The founding of Forestry Strains Bank, involving the establishment of regional strain preservation bank and low-temperature preservation bank, has been launched in August this year. The project aims to save and protect China’s rare and endangered forestry species resources.
Among some 9,000 forestry plant species, 17 percent are endangered; about 90 percent are on the edge of being endangered; high grade trees are losing by 55 percent; and 75 percent of the natural broadleaf forests in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have been ravaged. The present nature reserves protect only less than 30 percent of the country’s forestry plant species. Therefore, saving and protecting the forestry species resources is an extremely urgent task.
According to the authorities, the project will be completed in 10 years following its launch in this year. The bank will offer systematic protection and preservation to 300,000 to 400,000 strains of China’s 3,000 species of arbor, shrub, vine, bamboo, flower and grass. Meanwhile, 1,000 superior strains of plants will be developed and utilized. During the first five years, strains resource centers will be established in Inner Mongolia and Jiangxi Province, with 880 hectares of original-preservation and alien-preservation forests developed, and 21,000 strain samples and 211,000 specimens preserved. In this way, a network for the protection of China’s forestry species resources will be eventually built up.
(china.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, August 15, 2002)
