China's Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve Enlarged
6/11/98
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Title: China's Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve Enlarged
Source: CNN
Status: Copyrighted, contact source to reprint
Date: 6/11/98
KUNMING (June 12) XINHUA - Southwest China's Xishuangbanna Nature Reserve,
which mainly features protection of a tropical rain forest, has been enlarged
to 247,000 ha from 242,000 ha in the past 15 years, according to a recent
survey by the UN Global Environment Facility.
Li Hongwei, chief of the UN survey program, said that this indicates that
"China has worked hard to protect the sole tropical rain forest near the Tropic
of Cancer by establishing a nature reserve."
The tropical rain forest, located in the Xishuangbanna Autonomous Prefecture
and the adjacent areas in southwestern Yunnan Province, is the sole tropical
rain forest left near the Tropic of Cancer, and it is also the one at the
highest latitude on earth. Other areas on the same latitude are mostly
desertified.
Dr. Han Xingguo, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences,
attributed the survival of the tropical rain forest in Xishuangbanna to its
unique geographical location.
The Himalayas, which acts as a natural protective screen, hinder the invasion
of cold air, while warm, moist air from the Indian Ocean brings plentiful rain
for the forest, he explained.
Xishuangbanna has at least 4,900 species of higher plants, including 58 rare
and endangered ones that have been put under state protection. It is also home
to a quarter of the species of mammals and a third of species of birds in
China.
Copyright c 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.