Herons perch on branches in Lian'ao Village of Bili Town in Luoyuan County, east China's Fujian Province, June 3, 2021. (Xinhua/Wei Peiquan)

Across these areas, local authorities have been required to tailor protection and restoration measures as per local ecological conditions and prioritize the habitats of important species during implementation.

Alongside this, China has intensified efforts in eco-environmental conservation and restoration, as well as its fight against pollution.

Over the past decade, the area of new forests in China has exceeded 70 million hectares, ranking first in the world, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), China saw the number of natural reserves increase by more than 700, and has restored 1,200 km of its coastline and 23,000 hectares of seaside wetlands.

Through continuous efforts at fighting pollution, China has seen cleaner air and clearer waters. In 2020, the number of days with good air quality in 337 cities at and above the prefecture level across China accounted for 87 percent of the total days in a year on average. In the same year, of the 1,937 surface-water areas under state monitoring, the proportion of water sections with fairly good quality was 83.4 percent.

"By improving the general environment, our water quality is getting better, and the coverage of forests is expanding. This provides wild animals with a favorable environment in which to live and reproduce," said Zhuo Weihua, former director of the department for wildlife and nature reserves, Henan provincial forestry administration.

BETTER GOVERNANCE

Recognizing the fundamental role of good ecosystems in preserving biodiversity, China has made all out efforts to improve biodiversity governance, including elevating biodiversity conservation to a national strategy, rolling out measures to improve the legal and policy frameworks, expanding oversight on law enforcement and encouraging public participation.

As a result of tightened law enforcement, Chinese customs probed 923 criminal cases of smuggling endangered wildlife from January 2019 to September 2021, involving 1,552.7 tonnes of endangered wildlife and wildlife products, the General Administration of Customs said Saturday.

Chinese customs have also initiated or participated in many international and regional joint actions, improving long-term cooperation mechanisms to combat the smuggling of endangered wildlife and products.

As one of the most biodiverse countries, China is among the first nations to sign and approve the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

Milu deer wander in a national nature reserve in Shishou, central China's Hubei Province, May 17, 2021. (Xinhua/Rao Rao)

In 2010, the China National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2011-2030) was published. Since then, China has been working for a better eco-environment by improving the legal system and other mechanisms, strengthening in-situ and ex-situ conservation, increasing public participation, and boosting international cooperation and exchanges on biodiversity.

So far, China has made a positive contribution to the 2020 global biodiversity targets (the Aichi targets) and the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

It has over-fulfilled three of the Aichi targets -- establishing terrestrial nature reserves, restoring and ensuring important ecosystem services, and increasing ecosystem resilience and carbon storage -- and made progress on 13 targets, including mainstreaming biodiversity, the sustainable management of agriculture, forestry and fishery, and sustainable production and consumption, said the white paper on biodiversity conservation.

The efforts that China has made in recent decades to protect and conserve biodiversity represent a good model for future work, which other countries can also emulate and learn from, said Mrema.