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Yunnan revives populations of 20 severely threatened wild plant species with robust conservation efforts

(People's Daily Online) 16:23, September 16, 2021
Yunnan revives populations of 20 severely threatened wild plant species with robust conservation efforts
Dipteronia sinensis is seen in southwest China’s Yunnan province. (People’s Daily Online/Xu Qian)

Southwest China’s Yunnan province has done a good job in protecting 20 species of wild plants with extremely small populations by carrying out various methods of protection, which has saved the plants from going extinct, said an official with the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau.

Between 2016 and 2020, Yunnan carried out 120 projects to conserve those wild plants in the province that had extremely small populations. The province will also continue to make every effort to rescue another 101 wild plant species with limited populations over the next 10 years in the hope of recovering and expanding the numbers of wild plants, Wang Weibin, deputy director of the Yunnan Provincial Forestry and Grassland Bureau, told a news conference on the topic of bio-diversity in Yunnan as held on Sept. 13.

Yunnan province ranks first in China in terms of its diversity of animal and plant species. Moreover, the province is also home to many communities of vulnerable wild plants and animals. Surveys have indicated that at least 2,000 higher plants and more than half of the vertebrate animals living in Yunnan are classified as threatened. In order to rescue its plant species, Yunnan has put 87 species of wild plants with extremely small populations under the protection of the province and state.

Since 2016, Yunnan has established 30 protection areas, 13 gardens for the ex-situ conservation and protection of plants in their original habitats, and five research labs. The province has achieved breakthroughs in cultivation technologies related to 36 plant species, having completed the ex-situ conservation of 61 plant species through artificial cultivation, and has planted some 30,000 wild plants from 16 species living in the wild with extremely small populations after their numbers received a boost while under artificial cultivation.


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(Web editor: Hongyu, Bianji)

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