This Day, That Year: June 13

Editor's note: This year marks the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.

On June 13, 1994, the China Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation was released, putting the country at the forefront of global efforts to reverse declines in habitats and species, as seen in the item from China Daily.

The country is home to 35,000 higher plant species, 8,000 vertebrate species and 28,000 kinds of marine organisms. It also has more cultivated plant and domesticated animal species than any other country, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

One of the world's most biologically diverse nations, China has taken an active role in biodiversity protection.

In 1992, China became one of the first signatories of the Convention on Biological Diversity, and in 1996 it joined the World Conservation Union.

Thanks to a series of measures to protect the environment, China has seen steady growth in nature reserves, which are now home to about 90 percent of the wild animals and plants on its protected lists.

Since 1956, when the first nature reserves were established, China has set up 2,750 reserves, covering 1.5 million square kilometers.

Occupying 15 percent of the country's total land area, they have played an important role in safeguarding forests, wildlife and water resources.

In 2017, the central government released plans to establish four national parks that cover about 215,000 sq km, about 2 percent of the country's territory. A priority of the national park system is preserving biodiversity, a key indicator of local ecological well-being and environmental health.

The Catalog of Life in China, the latest annual checklist released by the ministry, showed the country had 92,301 species in 2017, an increase on the 86,575 recorded in 2016.

China has set long-term targets for biodiversity conservation. It aims to have laws and regulations in place by 2030 to protect biodiversity and the sustainable development of biological resources.