Gong Daxi, Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Nimaciren, the Vice-Chairman of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, Duojizha Jiangbailuosang, Vice-Chairman of the Political Consultative Conference of the Tibetan Autonomous Region attended the ceremony.

Yin Fatang, former secretary of the Tibetan Autonomous Regional Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the general advisor to the campaign, was also on hand.

Nimaciren said at the ceremony that Tibet is the main part of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau, the source of China’s and south and southeast Asian rivers and ecology and the climate regulator of the northern hemisphere. So, it has a very important strategic position in global ecological protection. The government of the Tibetan Autonomous Region has always attached great importance to environmental protection in Tibet.

By the first half of 2002, the region has established 18 regional nature reserves (including four national ones) with an area of 400,800 square kilometers or 33.4 percent of the national territory, offering effective protection to 125 wild animal species and 39 wild plant species that are on the national list for key protection.

The region has also attached great importance to the maintenance and restoration of forest and grassland functions and developed eco-agriculture. Backward production processes have been eliminated and a group of firms that seriously pollute the environment have been shut and the region’s key firms have asked to emit their pollutants in accordance with state-prescribed standards.

Nimaciren said that it is hoped that the campaign will urge more people to love nature and protect the beautiful environment.

(www.cenew.com.cn September 9, 2002)