China's State Council has approved a plan to establish a national botanical garden in capital Beijing, according to an official reply released on Tuesday.

Based on existing resources of the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing Botanical Garden, the national botanical garden will be divided into two areas with unified planning, construction and standards, and feature key functional areas, collection venues, scientific and research platforms and supporting infrastructures.

The garden will be jointly built by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the government of Beijing. It will reflect harmonious coexistence between humans and nature, showing respect to nature by putting conservation first and sharing benefits.

At the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) in October 2021, China announced the construction of botanical gardens in Beijing, Guangzhou and other places.

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