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Efforts Made to Protect Rare Species
Efforts to protect and breed endangered Chinese crocodilian are to be intensified through international co-operation, forestry chiefs pledged Sunday in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province.
"It is of vital importance for China to enhance the protection and management of crocodilian resources after indigenous Chinese alligators narrowly escaped extinction through the state's protection and conservation efforts since 1983," a deputy director of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said.
Addressing an international workshop on captive breeding and commercial management of crocodiles, Ma Fu told more than 80 officials and experts that China will further push forwards the protection, growth and sustainable use of crocodile resources through links with other countries.
Since the early 1980s, China has initiated a special programme to save the Chinese alligator by establishing a nature reserve with a breeding and research center in Wuhu in East China's Anhui Province, according to Monday's "China Daily".
So far ,more than 80 Chinese alligators have been returned to the wild with a survival rate of about 50 percent. The Wuhu center has set aside four zones near the reserve as future homes for reptiles.
To ensure a gradual and sustainable growth of the population of crocodilian ,China has also tightened control over the introduction, breeding and wise use of exotic crocodilian with higher economic values, the skin of the crocodile is highly valued for its deluxe; leather, and the extract from the musk glands is used in the manufacture of perfumes.
Due to overhunting, most of the world's existing 20 species of crocodilian, including Chinese alligators, are considered endangered species.
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