Sanjiangyuan Environment Protection and Construction project launched

Peoples from various circles of Qinghai on August 30 held a launching meeting for the Sanjiangyuan Environment Protection and Construction project, signifying the official launch of the project.

Du Ying, Vice Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, said in Xining on August 30 that starting from 2010 the central government plans to put 7.5 billion yuan into ecological protection and construction of the Qinghai Sanjiangyuan nature reserve.

It was learned from the meeting that the central government will finish the early-phase project by 2010 by carrying out natural grassland and forestry wetland protection and restoration etc. It would control and restore the deterioration and desertification of the regional grassland, raise green coverage by 20 to 40 percent and keep the population, livestock in the nature reserve within reasonable scope so as to check the deterioration of the eco-environment.

According to the master plan, by 2010 the central government will have put 3.127 billion yuan into the project to restore the grassland by reducing graving in the Sanjiangyuan nature reserve, retrieved 96.58 million mu (about 6.44 million hectares) of grassland, accounting for 62 percent of useable grassland, and stopped grazing for 5 years. It will have put 112 million yuan into protection of 1.6 million mu (106,7 million hectares) of marsh and wetland in the Zhaling-Eling Lake, Xingxinghai and Dangqu nature reserves, gradually restoring the wetlands. It also will have put 523 million yuan into treating 5.22 million mu (348,000 hectares) of black soil shoal (seriously deteriorated grasslands). The plan also proposes to realize the sustainable development of the environment, economy and society in the Sanjiangyuan region by 2020, accomplishing the joint prosperity of environment, production and life.

Du Ying said Sanjiangyuan is a unique plateau wetland eco-system in the world, which is a supply line for China's fresh water resources and an eco-screen for the western regions. It concerns the eco-security of China. The complexity and hardship of carrying out ecological restoration on a plateau should be acknowledged. Particular consideration should be given to natural laws and play to science and technology so as to give priority to the self-repair capability of the nature, supplemented by human measures.

The Qinghai Sanjiangyuan region is located in the middle of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. Being the source of the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lantsang River, it supplies 60 billion cubic meters of water for the lower reaches each year and is dubbed the "water tower of China". The region concentrates the most varieties of river, glacier, snow mountain and plateau species in the world. It is also the ecological function zone that exerts the most influence in China and significant impact on world climate.

The Sanjiangyuan region covers 363,000 square kilometers of land with a 590,000-people population, of which the Sanjiangyuan nature reserve accounts for 152,300 square kilometers.

By People's Daily Online