Legislators, advisers call for national law to protect biodiversity

National legislators and political advisers have called for a new law and an updated list of wildlife under State protection to better guard China's biodiversity.

China is one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world, with areas of the country representing all types of land ecosystems. It is also home to 35,000 higher plant species, 8,000 vertebrate species and 28,000 kinds of marine organisms. It also has more cultivated plant and domesticated animal species than any other country.

More than 1.7 million square kilometers - or 18 percent of China's land mass covering more than 90 percent of land ecosystem types and more than 89 percent of wildlife - is on a State protection list, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.