Ministry strives to create more biodiversity

The Ministry of Natural Resources has strived to create a fine natural environment with biodiversity to improve people's sense of happiness in building a moderately prosperous society in all respects.

Lu Hao, minister of natural resources, said at a news conference on Friday that the ministry has pushed forward several State-level reform campaigns in the past few years to regulate illegal behaviors such as building houses by occupying farmland and unprincipled land reclamation.

He said that the ministry has emphasized greening work and environmental restoration. "Forestation increased by about 36.3 million hectares, and forest coverage nationwide rose to 23 percent in the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20)," he said.

"The central government channeled about 50 billion yuan ($7.8 billion) during the 2016-20 period to areas like Qilianshan in Qinghai province to restore and protect the waters, mountains and grasslands there," he added. "Also, around 1,200 kilometers of coastline nationwide and coastal wetlands covering 23,000 hectares have been restored over the period."

Guan Zhiou, minister of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, added that China has the fifth largest forest area in the world, covering 220 million hectares, of which about 79 million hectares are artificially planted.

"We've also effectively cracked down on the illegal trade of wild animals and eliminated the bad habits of eating these wild animals in the past few years," he said. "People have won benefits from protecting the environment, and we've recruited over 1.1 million forest rangers over the 13th Five-Year Plan period and made over 3 million people shake off poverty because of the industry."

However, Lu said there are still challenges to maintain a good environment for the people. "We need to make clear the different situations of the nation, also the relationship between protection and development, and of course, the relationship between people and the nature. We need guidance from the central leadership and also advice from the public."

He said that the nation has so far faced a big problem planning land usage as the land has not been intensively and effectively used.

"Land in cities hasn't been used effectively and rural areas didn't have scientific plans. We have to come up to solutions to better use the land. It's a key path to the nation's high-quality and sustainable development.

"It's our target to hold the bottom line and push forward the realization of common prosperity and the high-quality development of the nation," he added.