China to strengthen protection of endangered wildlife

BEIJING -- China will step up efforts to protect endangered wildlife species and their habitats during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said on Thursday.

Emergency measures will be taken to protect 48 critically endangered wild animal species, including Siberian tigers, and 50 wild plant species with extremely small populations, such as Abies beshanzuensis, the administration said.

The country will strive to ensure a 10 percent increase in its total area of important habitats during the period, build a breeding base and gene bank for rare and endangered wild animals, and launch the ex-situ conservation of plants with low populations.

In recent years, China has made consistent efforts to protect wild animals and their habitats, and boost the in-situ and ex-situ conservation of wild plants.

The number of wild giant pandas has grown from 1,114 to 1,864 over the past four decades, and the Asian elephant population has grown from 180 in 1985 to approximately 300 at present.

The wild population of Hainan gibbons has increased from no more than 10 in two groups in 1980 to 35 in five groups.

Thursday is the World Wildlife Day, which was created to celebrate and raise awareness of the world's wild flora and fauna.