China's national parks boost ecosystems and wildlife

With a national park system with Chinese characteristics basically taking shape, the quality of natural ecosystems in key areas continuing to improve, and populations of flagship species steadily increasing, China's first batch of national parks have achieved fruitful results since their establishment five years ago, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration said on Monday.

China officially announced to establish the Sanjiangyuan National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, and the Wuyishan National Park on Oct 12, 2021.

Covering a combined area of 230,000 square kilometers, the five parks have integrated and optimized more than 120 protected areas of various types and levels.

Over the past five years, the parks have advanced integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmland, lakes, grasslands, and deserts, the administration noted in a media release.

Measures including habitat restoration, ecological corridor construction, and tighter control of human activities have helped strengthen the ecological foundations of key regions, it continued.

In the Giant Panda National Park, for example, 13 ecological corridors have been established to connect isolated local populations of wild giant pandas, greatly improving habitat connectivity, the release said.

The park now protects more than 70 percent of China's wild giant pandas, according to the administration.

It said the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park has also made marked progress. The park has carried out ecological protection and restoration over 40,000 hectares and improved cross-border ecological corridors, helping wild populations migrate and exchange.

The number of wild Siberian tigers in the park has risen from 27 at its establishment to 72, while wild Amur leopards have increased from 42 to 115, the release noted.

Other flagship species have also seen notable recovery, according to the administration.

In the Sanjiangyuan National Park, the Tibetan antelope population has recovered to more than 70,000, compared with fewer than 20,000 before the pilot national park program began in 2015.

In the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park, the Hainan gibbon population has expanded to seven groups with 44 individuals, making it the only gibbon population in the world that is continuing to grow.

The five national parks have also helped improve local livelihoods, the release said. Nearly 50,000 local residents have been employed as ecological rangers, each earning 12,000 yuan ($1,793) to 21,000 yuan a year.