Libo Cone Karst Nominated Site of South China Karst application for World Natural Heritage lies in Libo County, South Guizhou Buyi and Miao Autonomous Prefecture, Guizhou Province, and has a mean altitude of 747m ranging from 385 to 1109m.

It is a typical site of cone karst on the transitional zone between Guizhou plateau and Guangxi lowland, outstanding for their full spectra of gradual change from plateau karst to the lowland karst. The cone karst landscape supports immense biodiversity and this special karst forest ecosystem is the habitat of many endemic species and endangered fauna.

The nominated sites, where 90 percent of their populations are minorities, are rich in culture. The exotic local minority culture is the colorful and unique ethnic groups of Shui, Yao, Buyi, etc. The delimitation of boundary for the Libo Karst Nominated Sites mainly accords to the integrality of cone karst geomorphology development and distribution, karst forest ecosystem and habitat of rare and endangered species. The boundary keeps coherence with the boundary of Maolan National Nature Reserve and Daqikong and Xiaoqikong Spots in Libo Zhangjiang National Scenic Area.

The Libo Karst comprises core area of 29,518 hectares and buffer zones of 43.498 hectares. The core area of the Maolan National Nature Reserve nominated site covers 21,684 ha. taking up 73.46 percent of the cone area of the Libo nominated sites.

The criteria satisfied for the World Natural Heritage is as below:

 

Be outstanding examples representing major stages of the earth evolutionary history, including the records of life, significant on-going geological processes in the development of landforms, or significant geomorphic or physiographic features;

 

Be outstanding examples representing significant on-going ecological and biological processes in the evolution and development of terrestrial, fresh water, coastal and marine ecosystems and communities of plants and animals;

 

Contain the most important and significant natural habitats for in-situ conservation of biological diversity including those containing threatened species of outstanding universal value  from the point of view of science or conservation.

(China.org.cn)