National Forestry and Grassland Administration: China’s Endangered Wild Species Populations Overall Show Stability and Growth
CCTV News: Today (3rd) is the seventh ‘World Wildlife Day’ of the United Nations. This year’s global theme is ‘Protecting All Life on Earth’, and our country’s theme is ‘Maintaining the Global Community of Life.’
From the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, we learned that in recent years, through the systematic implementation of endangered species conservation projects, China’s giant pandas, black-faced spoonbills, Asian elephants, Tibetan antelope, etc. have reversed the continuous decline, and the Chinese Fir, Huagai Wood, Baishan Zuo Cold Pine have stabilized and grown in population.
According to relevant personnel of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, in recent years, China has strengthened the protection of wild animal habitats and the conservation and breeding of wild animals, severely cracked down on the illegal trade of wild animals and ivory, established a sound legal system, built a wild animal epidemic source and disease proactive warning and monitoring system, and continuously strengthened the protection of endangered wild animals.
As of now, the number of artificially bred giant panda populations has reached 600, which strongly supports the recovery and reproduction of the wild population. The wild giant panda population has risen from 1114 in the 1980s to 1864. The Asian elephant population has increased from 180 to nearly 300. The Tibetan antelope protection level has been downgraded from ‘Endangered’ to ‘Near Threatened’, and the population has increased from less than 75,000 heads to more than 300,000 heads. The black-faced spoonbill has increased from the initial 7 to more than 4000 in the wild population and artificially bred population.
At the same time, China has taken measures such as in-situ conservation, ex-situ conservation, and returning to nature to continue the protection of rare and endangered wild plants. A total of 11,800 natural protected areas have been established nationwide, providing wild plants with the natural environment they rely on for survival, and about 65% of the country’s key protected wild plants and small populations of wild plants are protected. Through the rescue protection of more than 100 small populations of endangered wild plants such as Chinese Fir, Huagai Wood, Baishan Zuo Cold Pine, Sky Larch, Pu Tao Larch, etc., the number of some endangered species populations has gradually recovered.
In addition, China has established nearly 200 various levels and types of botanical gardens, collecting and preserving 20,000 species, accounting for 2/3 of China’s plant families, basically completing the collection and preservation of Equisetum, palm germplasm resources, as well as the collection and preservation of key Orchid family and Orchidaceae plants originating from China.
China is one of the countries with the richest biodiversity in the world. Since joining the ‘Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’ (CITES) in 1981, the Chinese government has conscientiously fulfilled international obligations, and has taken a series of stricter measures than CITES, in strengthening performance management, improving regulatory enforcement, cracking down on illegal trade, promoting collaborative compliance, raising public awareness, and enhancing comprehensive performance compliance in many aspects.
