Speak Chinese - Race is on to protect Three Gorges flora

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Race is on to protect Three Gorges flora
By Wu Yong
Updated: 2007-09-11 07:17

Xiang Xiufa, a former fish farmer, is racing against time to protect rare
and endangered plants in the vicinity of the Three Gorges reservoir.

The 44-year-old has already preserved nearly 10,000 rare plants,
including 176 species, in his botanical garden. It has been a drain on
his time and money but worth it, he said.

"For pride and the good of future generations I cannot give up."

The Three Gorges area is the natural habitat of more than 500 rare
species. About 200 of these will be submerged when dam construction is
finished in 2009 and reservoir water levels reach 175 m, experts with the
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) said.

"This area is one of the nation's most important botanical bases. We
should do anything we can to preserve and protect these treasures," CAS
botanist Li Zhenyu said yesterday.

"Each [plant] means some potential solution for a future natural or
health problem. We may suffer great losses if we just sit by," he said.

The State Forestry Administration and the Three Gorges Project
Construction Committee has spent millions of yuan preserving
bio-diversity in the region over the past years.

Scientists at Wuhan Botanic Garden (WBG), with CAS, have transplanted
more than 100 species to reserves in Hubei Province's Yichang and Wuhan.

CAS scientists in Beijing have set up seed banks and frozen genes to aid
long-term preservation.

"Our institute has conserved 70 to 80 percent of the endangered plant
species in the Three Gorges area," WBG's Wu Jinqing said.

"To protect plants in the Three Gorges is an arduous, long-term task. We
need to study these plants," he said.

(China Daily 09/11/2007 page4)

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