Scientists Sign Up Biodiversity Conservation Program in Three Gorges Area
Posted on: Thursday, 21 July 2005, 09:00 CDT
Scientists sign up biodiversity conservation program in Three Gorges area
CHONGQING, July 20 (Xinhua) -- Botanists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have signed up a biodiversity program that aims to protect rare plants and expand vegetation in the Three Gorges area.
Experts say the cooperation between CAS Institute of Botany in Beijing and the Three Gorges botanical garden in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality will provide a theoretical basis for preserving biodiversity in the Three Gorges area, which is known as a natural gene bank for China's rare plants and animal species.
The two sides have agreed to carry out joint researches on biodiversity and environment protection in the Three Gorges area and will co-sponsor a botanical gene bank to protect the most endangered species from extinction.
The CAS institute will provide training to botanical workers in the Three Gorges area, according to their agreement signed earlier this week.
The Three Gorges Project, the world's biggest hydroelectric scheme, began in 1993 and is expected to be completed in 2009. The project, with a budgeted cost of 40 billion yuan (about 4.82 billion US dollars), was designed to help control heavy floods on the Yangtze River and increase China's power supply.
Construction of the project has drawn the world's attention to the ecological environment in the reservoir area, more than 80 percent of which is under the jurisdiction of Chongqing.
The municipality has managed to enhance its forest coverage to the present 25 percent from 10.3 percent recorded in the 1990s.
To cultivate a favorable ecological environment, counties along the reservoir have set up special forestry administration offices and launched a series of moves to protect and expand vegetation.
These counties have banned falling of trees, widely planted bamboo and vegetation along the gorges and relocated to higher ground a large number of rare trees that would have been submerged by the reservoir water.
Source: Xinhua News Agency - CEIS
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