Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
country's continental ecosystem, 85 % of its wildlife population and 65 % of higher
plant communities.
Additionally, more than 145 national wetland parks have been established
nationwide, including 37 wetlands of international importance, and 18.2 million
hectares, or 50.3 % of natural wetland areas, are protected effectively. In addition,
wild animal conservation efforts are being expanded. Protective patrols and habitat
optimization projects have been put in place to guard 80 species of rare and
endangered animals [
17
].
6.8
Forest and Grassland Protection During the 11th
Five-Year Plan
During the 11th Five-Year Plan, China strengthened ecological construction within
grassland areas and accelerated the process of a forestation.
6.8.1 Grassland Construction Achieves Huge Breakthrough
During the 11th Five-Year Plan, China has taken measures to revert grazing land
back into grassland and control the sources of sandstorms in Beijing and Tianjin. It
also further reworked management of grasslands in southwestern China and
implemented a program to protect grasslands settled by nomadic peoples.
Grassland vegetation in the program area appears to be recovering, and there has
been an obvious increase in the coverage, height and yield of grass, resulting in an
overall improvement of the grassland ecological environment. The cumulative area
of non-fenced grasslands nationwide is 22.7 million hectares, while the fenced
grassland area accounts for 73.3 million hectares, and areas where feeding is
restricted account for 107 million hectares. Compared to the non-program area,
the vegetation coverage ratio within the grassland protect is 12 % higher, and
on average, the grass is 41.8 % higher in height. Also, the project area showed
increases of 50.5 % and 56.6 % in the yields of grass and edible grass, respectively.
6.8.2 Forest Coverage Exceeds 20 %
At the end of 2010, the area of protected national forests was 195 million hectares,
forest stock volume was 13.721 billion hectares, and forest coverage was 20.36 %.
This means that China met the goal of achieving 20 % forest coverage 2 years in
advance. The artificial forestation area accounted for 620 million hectares, and
stock volume was 19.61 billion cubic meters, the highest in the world. According to
Fig.
6.4
, since the 11th Five-Year Plan went into effect, the forest coverage area has
increased every year.
In the past 5 years, public funding for forest construction increased rapidly. The
total investment reached 253.8 billion yuan, and average annual investment was
