China held the National Event on World Environment Day on Saturday in Xining, Northwest China’s Qinghai Province, highlighting the ecologic and environmental protection achievements and appeals of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
China should promote and accelerate building of the natural reserve system with national parks as the main body, and completing related supervision system, to reinforce the national ecologic safety shield, Huang Runqiu, Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment, said at the event.
It is the first time that China has held a national event on World Environment Day in western China.
Qinghai has been completing the plans of the Sanjiangyuan National Park and the Qilian Mountain National Park, and is in the early stages of planning on other two national parks in Qinghai Lake and the Kunlun Mountains, Xin Changxing, mayor of Qinghai, said.
World Environment Day has been held since 1972. This year’s theme is “Living harmony with nature.”
The National Event on World Environment Day on Saturday Photo: Shan Jie/GT
The event also awarded outstanding cases and figures of public participation in areas such as environment education, waste disposal and wild bird protection.
Qinghai, with an average altitude of 4,058 meters on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, is the origin of three main rivers in Asia – the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Lancang (Mekong) River. It is known as the “water tower of China.”
Tibetan antelopes spotted in Qinghai Photo: Courtesy of Ge Yuxiu
Qinghai has a unique ecological but fragile system with species representing high plateau, such as the Tibetan antelope, Przewalski’s gazelle, and the snow leopard.
The population of Przewalski’s gazelle, a rare species origin to the three rivers, has grown from 300 to 3,000 in the past 25 years, the Global Times learned from the provincial department of ecology and environment.
In recent years, more snow leopards have been spotted in China in a wider region, which is thanks to the protection of regional ecology in the past years, together with increasing supervision means, Qi Xinzhang, vice director at the Xining Wildlife Park and Qinghai wildlife rescue and breed center, told the Global Times.
Dabao, a snow leopard rescued by the Qinghai wildlife rescue and breed center Photo: Shan Jie/GT
To protect the ecosystem of the world’s roof, since 1975, Qinghai has built up 109 natural reserves covering a total area of 265,800 square kilometers, accounting for 36.8 percent of the province, covering key regions including the Origin of the Three Rivers, the Qinghai Lake and the Qilian Mountains. China’s exploration on national park systems was first piloted in Qinghai in 2015.
The National Event on World Environment Day on Saturday Photo: Shan Jie/GT
