South China National Botanical Garden

The South China National Botanical Garden was inaugurated in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province, on Monday. It aims to strengthen the conservation, scientific research and knowledge dissemination of tropical and subtropical plants. The garden has three research centers, one herbarium, two national-level field stations and three key laboratories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

To strengthen biodiversity protection, China is moving faster to establish a system for protected areas with national parks as the mainstay. Over time, areas with the greatest importance to the natural ecosystem, and with the most spectacular natural landscapes, the most valuable natural heritage and the greatest biodiversity reserve will be included in the national park system. China has officially designated its first group of national parks that includes the Three-River-Source National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Forests National Park, and the Wuyishan National Park. The protected land area is 230,000 square kilometers and they cover nearly 30 percent of the key terrestrial wildlife species found in China. In the meantime, acting by the principle of striking a balance between on-site and translocation conservation, China has started building a system of national botanical gardens in places like Beijing and Guangzhou.