Green drive scales new peaks - Seite 4

Xi has personally reviewed plans for four of the 10 pilot national parks, including those for Qilian Mountain National Park, according to Yang Weimin, deputy head of the Office of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs, and demanded that the integrity and original condition of the ecosystems be preserved.

"The aim is to give about 215,000 sq km of land back to nature, to give roughly 2 percent of China's territory to giant pandas, Siberian tigers and Tibetan antelopes, and to give our future generations a larger area of pristine land," Yang said at a news conference on the sidelines of the 19th CPC National Congress.

Thriving wild animals

The National Forestry and Grassland Administration said in 2019 that the construction of all 10 national parks will be completed on schedule, adding that some had already made significant achievements in ecological and wildlife protection.

In Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, which spans the border of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, Siberian tigers and Amur leopards－two species listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List－have seen their populations increase in the past two years.

Zhang Shanning, deputy head of the park's management bureau, said 10 Siberian tigers and six Amur leopards had been born in that time.

In Giant Panda National Park, which unites more than 80 fragmented habitats scattered in southwestern China's Sichuan province and Shaanxi and Gansu provinces in the northwest, 319 cases of illegal use of forest land, 621 cases of commercial logging and 462 criminal cases of wildlife hunting and trading were subjected to prosecution or administrative punishment in 2019.

Improving livelihoods

Relocation of residents from the core protected areas of most national parks is speeding up.

Nearly 2,900 residents have been moved from the core protected area in Qilian Mountain National Park in Gansu province, Wang said.

They include herdsman Kang Yongsheng and his family, who were relocated in November 2017 along with other residents of Nangou village.

Wang said the government gave one herdsman from each family a job as a forest or grassland ranger in the national park. The job, together with government subsidies, pays 100,000 yuan ($14,240) a year, equal to the amount they could earn from raising livestock.

Kang's son and daughter-in-law now work as taxi drivers in Zhangye, Gansu, and the family's living conditions have improved significantly thanks to its relocation.

Building on his decades in the company of wildlife, the mountains, grasslands and rivers, Kang said he loved working as a forest ranger.

"Now every time I see the soft clouds floating in the air, and deer and blue sheep drinking water quietly on the river bank, a strong feeling of peace and pride overwhelms me," he said. "I guess it's because of the love of the mountains, which I've taken as my home."

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