Nature conservation

Qinling Mountains in automun. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Recent years have witnessed new respect for the environment in Shaanxi which should help to transform it into a brand new ecologically-minded province.

The Green Forest project, which aims to cover eight million mu of land with green forest every year, has been implemented, and both forest coverage and the numbers of reserves have been increasing. Shaanxi has made green its dominant color. From north to south, the north plateau is a luxuriant emerald, the central plain is nourished by forests and waters and the south of the province is brimming with vigor and vitality.

The protection of natural forest and wetland, the conservation of soil and water and the protection of natural reserves have had an obvious effect. The forest resources of Shaanxi are mainly distributed in five areas, the Qinling, Bashan, Guangshan, Qiaoshan and Huanglong Mountains.

Huashan Mountain. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

During the 12th Five-year Plan period, Shaanxi’s forest area increased from 128 million mu to 133 million, and the vegetation rate accordingly rose from 41.42 percent to 43.06 percent. The province’s forestry gross output increased from 26.1 billion yuan at the end of 2010 to 100.8 billion at the end of 2015.

In 2015, Shaanxi accelerated its woody oil crop industry, reached a total acreage of 18 million mu for peony, walnut and tea-oil trees, set up the first 1000t/a woody oil automation demonstration line in northwest China, and constantly improved the mass production, standardization and intensification of forestry. The province also carried out the smart forest cloud pilot project and established 17 video monitoring points at four State-owned key forests for around-the-clock supervision and monitoring.

Shaanxi features a complicated natural environment, diverse ecological conditions and abundant biological resources. Its five forested areas represent a total coverage of 41.42 percent. Shaanxi is home to 693,800 trees, accounting for 24.32 percent of the national total.

The province continuously strengthens its supervision of its ecological and natural reserves. At present, the number of counties in Shaanxi in which groups of wild pandas are distributed has risen from five to nine. The distribution area of wild crested ibis has risen from three counties to nine, with the population of wild specimens increasing from only seven to more than 1,600. The birds were found in Tongchuan in 2013 and in Qianyang, Baoji in 2014. Flying crested ibises fly again in the central land of Shaanxi province. What is more, extraordinary accomplishments have been achieved in the protection of the golden monkey, the takin, the brown-eared pheasant, the relict gull and other rare wild creatures.