This Day, That Year

Editor’s Note: This year marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up policy.

On March 1, 1989, the country’s first Wildlife Protection Law took effect. To better protect wild animals, a revised law came into force in 2017.

In 2016, China was home to 86,575 species of wildlife, a rise from 73,255 in 2015, according to the Catalog of Life in China, the latest annual checklist.

The country also saw steady growth in the number of nature reserves, which are home to 89 percent of the wild animals and plants on the country’s protected lists.

Since China’s first natural protection zone was established in Guangdong province in 1956, more than 2,700 nature reserves have been built across the nation, according to the State Forestry Administration.

Covering 1.7 million square kilometers and occupying 15 percent of the country’s total land area, they have played an important role in safeguarding forests, wildlife and water.

Thanks to these reserves, a number of rare and endangered species have recovered. For example, the number of Yunnan snubnosed golden monkeys, which are only found in Southwest China, has risen from 1,400 about 20 years ago to more than 2,000 in 2015, according to the Baima Snow Mountain National Natural Reserve in Yunnan province.

To better protect more species, China has set longterm targets for the conservation of biodiversity, aiming to establish a sound legal and regulatory framework by 2030 to protect biodiversity and the sustainable development of biological resources.