China is working hard to protect its endangered wildlife and habitats, and has set up protection for most wild species.  

The State Forestry Administration (SFA) says that 85 percent of wildlife species, 85 percent of terrestrial ecosystems, and 65 percent of higher plant colonies are now protected.

At a national conference held in Haikou, capital of south China’s Hainan Province, Thursday, SFA officials said a growing number of nature reserves across the country have provided good habitat environments for endangered wildlife and plant species.

By the end of 2003, China had set up 1,538 nature reserves with an area of 118 million hectares, or 12.3 percent of China's total land territory, which contributed to the growth of a group of endangered wildlife and plant species, including giant panda, red ibis, Chinese alligator, yew, arethusa and cycad.

However, some wildlife species are still on the verge of extinction, due to illicit hunting, poaching, logging and smuggling activities.

"If we do not take substantial measures to stop such illegal actions as soon as possible, some related industries will find it hard to move ahead," said the SFA deputy director Zhao Xuemin.

China's forestry authorities in the past year launched a series of campaigns to crack down on illegal hunting, logging and smuggling of endangered wildlife and plants. In a "Spring Thunder" operation alone, the SFA filed approximately 9,000 cases for investigation and seized more than 900,000 pieces of evidence.

Meanwhile, Zhao said the SFA has decided to make great efforts to promote artificial breeding and fostering of wildlife and plants in the future to ease natural protection pressure. So far, more than 18,000 such bases have been set up across the country.

Statistics of the SFA show that some 156 species of China's endangered wildlife and plants are among the world's 640 endangered species listed in the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

However, due to insufficient resources, destruction of the natural habitat of wild species and illicit poaching, China could lose 15 to 20 percent of its species, higher than the world level of 10-15 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency April 2, 2004)