China's ecological environment improved greatly over past decade: CAS

BEIJING -- The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released a series of reports on Tuesday revealing that China has made great achievements in its ecological environment over the past decade.

The reports show that the total amount of freshwater resources available in China's lakes and reservoirs has increased significantly. The transparency of most lakes has steadily improved, as has the biodiversity in some important lakes.

The reports also point out that the overall area of China's wetlands is on a trend of continual recovery, while wetland biodiversity protection has been fruitful.

As for mountains, the prevention and control of soil erosion has been highly effective, and an efficient mountain disaster prevention and control system has been built.

According to the reports, water conservation in the arid areas of northwest China has seen remarkable results, with increasing efficiency of water use and the expansion of areas using water-saving irrigation.

The reports also state that the ecological environment in the three urban clusters of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Yangtze River Delta and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has steadily improved. The quality of the atmospheric and water environment has improved significantly. The efficiency of resource and energy use has increased, and pollutant emissions have dropped.

Zhang Tao, vice president of CAS, said that in the past 10 years, China's ecological environmental protection has undergone historical changes.

CAS released the series of reports with the aim of helping to promote ecological environmental governance and protection in China through the scientific and systematic understanding of research objects, Zhang added.