CRI听力:Biodiversity China 2010

To promote the protection of biodiversity and reduce the constant loss of biological diversity worldwide, the UN declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. China is a member of this project.

Our reporter Li Dong has the details.



"Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life" is the theme of Biodiversity China 2010.

During the whole year's promotion, a series of activities will be held to promote public awareness in protecting biodiversity like summit forums and biodiversity knowledge competitions. Also, the government will conduct supervisions to fight illegal hunting and other related conduct in nature reserves nationwide.

Wan Bentai, general engineer at the Ministry of Environmental Protection says biodiversity is vital to human life.

"The earth is colorful just because of biodiversity. If all the species are gone and there is only we humans left. Humans won't be able to survive."

Biodiversity not only refers to all the species, including animals, plants and insects but also the genes and our living environment.

However, dozens of species are disappearing on our planet everyday. Currently, 34 thousand plants and 5,200 animals are at the edge of extinction.

Huang Chengming from the National Animal Museum says many species' extinction is because of human activities.

"Many animals on display in our museum are endangered because of human activities like hunting and fishing. But many animals have a close connection with humans. We should treat them as friends."

Yu Shengxiang from the Plant Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences says many plants make great contributions to human life.

"This is Taxus Brevifolia Nutt. It's the source of Paclitaxel, which is a very useful element to cure cancer. It's even more precious than gold. Many plant species are significant to medicine, which means our health."

In recent years, the number of animal and plant species declined sharply in China due to various reasons. Among the 640 species listed in Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, China has more than 150.(www.hXen.cm)

Khalid Malik, UN Resident Coordinator in China says protecting the endangered species requires a lot of effort.

"We need policies which protect biodiversity. And we have to find programs which (can) encourage, provide incentives for people not to cut down the forest, or not to destroy the habitat of rare birds of fisheries. We have to do many things."

For China Drive, I am Li Dong.