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Forest Biodiversity and Nature
Reserve Management in China
Shirong Liu and Xun Yan
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Figure 1. Distribution of
nature reserves in China
Distribution of nature reserves
in China. The nature reserves in China can be classified for the protection
objective into three categories and nine types (see Table 5). Up to now, 419
forest ecosystem nature reserves have been established, accounting for 45.2% of
all the nature reserves and covering 15.5618 million ha. The different levels
and types of nature reserves provide an effective protection for 70% of the
terrestrial ecosystem types, 80% of wildlife and 60% of higher plants, and many
rare and endangered species protected by the State as priority species.
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Table 5. Category and type of China’s nature reserves (1997) |
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Category and type |
Number |
Area in 10,000ha |
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Natural ecosystem |
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Forest |
419 |
1,556.18 |
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Grassland and meadow |
20 |
197.19 |
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Desert |
7 |
3,006.72 |
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Inland wetlands |
61 |
257.40 |
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Marine and seashore |
26 |
50.01 |
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Wildlife |
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Wild animals |
258 |
2,475.24 |
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Wild plants |
77 |
131.69 |
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Relic remains |
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Geological relic |
51 |
21.36 |
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Paleontological relic |
7 |
1.11 |
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Total |
926 |
7,697.90 |
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