China has launched pilot projects for 10 national parks in 12 provinces, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration at a press conference on Wednesday. These parks cover an area of about 220,000 square kilometers, or 2.3 percent of the country's land territory.

The Sanjiangyuan National Park (Photo/Xinhua)

China's efforts to establish a national park system and form a unified management system have begun to pay off.

The Sanjiangyuan National Park in northwest China's Qinghai province is one of the 10 national parks. The country has seen consistent improvement in environmental quality after the establishment of the park, home to the sources of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers.

Within the pilot zones in the park, the average water conservation volume increased by over 6 percent, the grassland coverage rate grew over 11 percent and grass yield soared by over 30 percent.

The park has established a management system at all levels from the entire province, prefectures and counties down to townships and villages, and basically brings an end to the confusing division of responsibilities between different departments as well as inefficient law enforcement, said Ren Yonglu, deputy head of the administration bureau of Sanjiangyuan National Park.

The park has also become a land where man and nature co-exist in harmony. Herdsmen have been given a stable income, incentivizing them to participate in ecological protection and park management. The park currently hires 17,200 rangers from local communities, increasing their average annual income by 21,600 yuan per household.

In the Hainan Tropical Rainforest Pilot National Park in south China, more than 133 hectares of land inhabited by the Hainan gibbon, the world’s rarest and most vulnerable primate, have been restored, said Xia Fei, director of the park administration bureau. Xia added that the animal's population has risen to 30 gibbons and four social groups.