This Day, That Year

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

Editor’s note:

On March 1, 1989, the country’s first Wildlife Protection Law took effect. A revised law came into force in 2017.

In that year, China was home to 86,203 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 National Forestry and Grassland 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 resources.

China is also setting up a national park system and has launched a pilot program that will see 10 national parks established across the country to protect the natural environment and endangered species. Sanjiangyuan National Park will be the first and is set to open next year. An item from Nov 10, 2016, in China Daily showed wild asses grazing in the park.

Covering about 9.96 million hectares of grassland, 2.15 million hectares of wetland and 299,000 hectares of forest, the park is home to the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers.

Thanks to these reserves, the numbers of rare and endangered species have seen a steady recovery.

China has set long-term 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.