Green drive scales new peaks

Preserving ecosystems

Other areas have also seen their ecosystems recover and have gained better protection thanks to China's efforts to establish nature reserves.

When delivering a report at the opening of the 19th National Congress of the CPC in 2017, Xi said the country, as part of an effort to build a beautiful China, would develop a nature reserve system composed mainly of national parks.

That idea had its genesis in 2005, when Xi was the Party secretary of Zhejiang province. In August of that year, on a visit to Yucun, a village in Zhejiang's Anji county, Xi praised the local government for stopping mining activities and closing cement factories to deal with a serious pollution problem.

During the visit, Xi put forward his famous development theory that "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", which later became known as the "Two Mountains Theory".

The green development philosophy is changing the country, with action plans to fight air, water and soil pollution introduced in recent years and its harshest-ever Environmental Protection Law rolled out.

Ecological civilization was also included in the CPC Constitution as a principle for development at the 18th CPC National Congress. It was the first time in the world that a ruling party had highlighted green development in its charter.

In June 2020, the State Council unveiled a guideline on nature reserves, with national parks as a major component, aimed at providing systemic protection for natural ecosystems, relics, scenery and biodiversity, and also safeguarding the country's ecological security.

Xi has personally reviewed plans for four of the 10 pilot national parks, including those for Qilian Mountain National Park, according to Yang Weimin, deputy head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs, and demanded that the integrity and original condition of the ecosystems be preserved.

"The aim is to give about 215,000 sq km of land back to nature, to give roughly 2 percent of China's territory to giant pandas, Siberian tigers and Tibetan antelopes, and to give our future generations a larger area of pristine land," Yang said at a news conference on the sidelines of the 19th CPC National Congress.

Thriving wild animals

The National Forestry and Grassland Administration said in 2019 that the construction of all 10 national parks will be completed on schedule, adding that some had already made significant achievements in ecological and wildlife protection.

In Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, which spans the border of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, Siberian tigers and Amur leopards－two species listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List－have seen their populations increase in the past two years.

Zhang Shanning, deputy head of the park's management bureau, said 10 Siberian tigers and six Amur leopards had been born in that time.

In Giant Panda National Park, which unites more than 80 fragmented habitats scattered in southwestern China's Sichuan province and Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in the northwest, 319 cases of illegal use of forest land, 621 cases of commercial logging and 462 criminal cases of wildlife hunting and trading were subjected to prosecution or administrative punishment in 2019.

Improving livelihoods

Relocation of residents from the core protected areas of most national parks is speeding up.

Nearly 2,900 residents have been moved from the core protected area in Qilian Mountain National Park in Gansu province, Wang said.

They include herdsman Kang Yongsheng and his family, who were relocated in November 2017 along with other residents of Nangou village.

Wang said the government gave one herdsman from each family a job as a forest or grassland ranger in the national park. The job, together with government subsidies, pays 100,000 yuan ($14,240) a year, equal to the amount they could earn from raising livestock.

Kang's son and daughter-in-law now work as taxi drivers in Zhangye, Gansu, and the family's living conditions have improved significantly thanks to its relocation.

Building on his decades in the company of wildlife, the mountains, grasslands and rivers, Kang said he loved working as a forest ranger.

"Now every time I see the soft clouds floating in the air, and deer and blue sheep drinking water quietly on the river bank, a strong feeling of peace and pride overwhelms me," he said. "I guess it's because of the love of the mountains, which I've taken as my home."