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UPDATED: August 7, 2009 NO. 31 AUGUST 6, 2009
A Plan to Save the Species
China hopes to draw more attention to endangered species by selecting regional representatives
By TANG YUANKAI
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Przewalski's Horse, a type of wild horse, representative animal for Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (LUO XIAOGUANG) 

Yin Xia, a native of Shanxi Province, did not know she shared her hometown with a world-renowned animal until this past May, when officials named two Shanxi natives as representatives for the province—the leopard and the flowering plant dangshen, also known as the poor man's ginseng—during a national event.

Yin, who now works in Beijing, went online to find that Shanxi is home to the North Chinese leopard, a subspecies of the wild cat native to north China.

"Shanxi is a major province for energy and the population of this animal would decrease or even die out wherever there is a mining industry. Though labeled as a state-level animal, its survival is critically endangered," said Yin.

Yin soon realized that she was concerned about conserving biodiversity. She paid attention to the 23rd International Congress for Conservation Biology that began on July 11 in Beijing. She learned from reports of the meeting that the extinction rate of species today is as high as 100 to 1,000 times faster than normal, and that a species vanishes from the world every 20 minutes.

"The biodiversity on our planet is facing unprecedented threats," she said.

Biodiversity at issue

The annual meeting not only provided a place for professional researchers to communicate, but also served as a platform for organizations and individuals dedicated to conservation to exchange views and information with those researchers.

The meeting covered various topics including conservation of biodiversity, conservation of endangered species, nature reserve management and sustainable development. The 23rd session was the first held in Asia by the State Forestry Administration of China (SFAC), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Society for Conservation Biology (SCB). With the theme "Conservation: Harmony for Nature and Society," the six-day meeting attracted more than 1,200 experts, scholars and individuals from 74 countries dedicated to conservation.

"The human race still faces a series of problems, including resources depletion, ecological deterioration and species extinction," said Jia Zhibang, Director of the SFAC, at the meeting's opening ceremony. "The sustainable development of human society still needs us to cope with these unprecedented challenges."

He said China would continue to improve its wildlife conservation system, strengthen the protection of the natural ecosystem and work to save endangered species.

"Our current biodiversity is the result of billions of years of evolution. It provides rich resources for human existence and development, and also plays a crucial role in maintaining the ecological balance and improving the natural environment," he said.

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