Chinese and foreign participants at the '99 Kunming International Horticulture Exposition in Yunnan, which closes on October 31, called for global cooperation to protect the deteriorating world environment and the diversity of biological resources.

　 By next year, 50,000 to 60,000 varieties of plants worldwide will be in danger of extinction, and 4,000 among China's 30,000 varieties will become extinct if no effective measures are taken to improve the world's environment, warned Lin Wenlan, director of the Yunnan provincial scientific committee.

　 A visitor from Zimbabwe said the global environment will further deteriorate if developed countries do not give huge support to developing countries in this regard.

　 Joyce Stauffer of Denmark noted that protecting nature is the common responsibility of mankind, and there are no national boundaries in this task.

　 Ole Phillipso, president of the International Expositions Bureau, said that although the expo, which opened on May 1, was unable to help solve all the world's environmental problems, it did offer some solutions for the coordinated development of nature and the human race in the future.

　 China, the world's largest developing country, will play an important role in protecting the global environment in the next century.