2016年CRI International Day for Biological Diversity Marked in China

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According to a document released at the conference by China's Ministry¹ of Environmental Protection, the country has established over 2700 nature reserves covering a combined area of nearly 1.5 million square kilometers.

That accounts for about 15 percent of China's entire land area.

About 89 percent of all wildlife and wild plants under state protection and most of the nation's key natural remains² are preserved in nature these reserves.

Earlier this month, a female black snub-nosed monkey at the Baima Snow Mountain Nature Reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province gave birth for the second year in a row.

This marked a breakthrough in the reproduction cycle of the species which is among the world's most endangered primates³. Previously⁴ they gave birth once in every two years.

Zhong Tai, an official of the reserve, said it is the shortest reproduction cycle for the species at the reserve in over 2 decades.

"In over 20 years of artificial feeding at our reserve, we have never experienced this phenomenon of a female monkey giving birth in a successive year. I think it is a breakthrough in breeding black snub-nosed monkeys."

Black snub-nosed monkeys, with an estimated population of 3500 in China, are on the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Meanwhile, China has been implementing⁵ a series of ecological⁶ rehabilitation⁷ projects in the South China Sea, which is rich in biological resources and also home to over 100 kinds of coral.

Wang Yamin, a professor with the Marine⁸ Institute of the Shandong University, said China has done a lot of restoration work.

"In recent years, we have done a lot of work to protect the South China Sea and restore its coral reef ecosystem⁹. We have also conducted technical research on the biodiversity protection of marine organisms such as sea turtles, including the construction of a protection zone, enforcing bans on fishing off season and ecological restoration."

Another highlight and a crucial mission is protecting the habitat of endangered sea turtles at China's Xisha Islands.

A variety of the turtles' species has been listed as animals in China under Second-Class State Protection and included in the list of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna¹⁰ and Flora¹¹.

Zhou Jinfeng, secretary-general of the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation, said many institutions in China had taken actions to protect them.

"We have collaborated¹² with the Xiamen University to start working on a biodiversity database for species at the South China Sea since last year. Meanwhile, we also monitor the sea turtles in the South China Sea. After more than half a year's work, this year we will free those sea turtles this month and next month."

China is also enforcing a fishing ban in the South China Sea every year from May 16 to August 1 as a move to reduce damage to endangered species.

For CRI, I'm Xie Cheng.