First Provincial Biodiversity Program LaunchedHunan Province in central China has launched a biodiversity protection program, the first of its kind in a province.The program, started with consultation from the Finnish forest and garden authorities, will invest 500 million yuan (60 million U.S. dollars) annually to improve the managerial standards of protecting reserves rich in biodiversity in the province, which has over 50 percent of greenery coverage. The biosystem in Hunan is known as one of the last shelters for a number of endangered species such as South China Tiger and Chinese dove tree. The Dongting Lake wetland reserve in its north and the subtropical forest in its south are listed among the world's 200 most important bio-protection zones. The work on the protection program, started in 1997, was based on a state-level China Biodiversity Program that started in 1994. |
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