XINING: Over the years, China has made consistent strides in enhancing its ability to protect the biodiversity of the Sanjiangyuan area in Northwest China’s Qinghai province.
The Sanjiangyuan area, known as China’s “water tower,” contains the headwaters of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers. Located at an average altitude of more than 4,700 meters, Sanjiangyuan National Park is the world’s highest national park covering a total area of 190,700 sq km and boasts one of the highest concentrations of biodiversity in the world at high altitudes.
Every year, tens of thousands of pregnant Tibetan antelopes start their migration to Hoh Xil in around May to give birth and leave with their offspring in late July.
During the 1980s and 1990s, due to poaching sprees, the population of Tibetan antelopes in Hol Xil dropped to less than 20,000.
Thanks to the country’s active anti-poaching and biodiversity protection efforts in recent years, Hoh Xil is now home to more than 70,000 Tibetan antelopes. The status of Tibetan antelopes in China has been downgraded from “endangered” to “near threatened.”
Since the establishment of the Longbao national nature reserve, located in the Sanjiangyuan area, in 1984, the number of bird species in the reserve has increased from 30 to 138.
According to Pasang Tsering, head of the management station of the reserve, the number of black-necked cranes, a species under first-class national protection, in the reserve rose from a few dozen to more than 200, and the bar-headed geese numbered over 10,000 at its peak. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
