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China to build park to preserve world's largest virgin diversiform- leaved poplar forest
2003-12-11
Xinhua
China will start at the end of the year to build a park at the Tarim River Valleys in northwest China 's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region to preserve 352,000 hectares of diversiform-leaved poplar threes, the largest virgin forest of its kind in the world.
The project will cost 110 million yuan (13.2 million US dollars) .
To keep intact the original geomorphological structure and vegetation form, no new roads will be built and cement buildings are forbidden in the park.
No walks are allowed in the park and all tours will be made in environmentally-friendly cars.
Diversiform-leaved poplar trees mainly grow in 20 countries, including Mongolia and some on the Mediterranean. Xinjiang grows 91 percent of diversiform-leaved poplar threes in China.
Diversiform-leaved poplar threes are estimated to have a history of three million years, according to its fossils found in 1935 in Xinjiang and neighboring Gansu province.
During the 1960-1970 period, large areas of diversiform-leaved poplar threes were felled in some areas in Xinjiang to make room for farming, greatly deteriorating the local ecological environment with desert incursion into oases.
Introduction of laws and policies, along with increasing protection awareness among the public, have kept the rare trees from destruction.
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