China will establish more national parks, as notable progress has been made in building the first batch of national parks, which were officially announced in 2021, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) on Tuesday.

Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, Guan Zhi'ou, head of the NFGA, said the five parks - namely the Sanjiangyuan National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park and the Wuyi Mountains National Park - have generated favorable outcomes in ecological restoration, biodiversity protection and environmental improvement.

Guan said the Sanjiangyuan National Park, where forest and grass coverage exceeds 74 percent, has been playing an important role in protecting the origins of the Yangtze, Lancang and Yellow Rivers.

The park is also now home to more than 7,000 Tibetan antelope, a species under first-class state protection in China.

The China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda has been established and is supported with science and technology resources from the Giant Panda National Park. The parks protect 70 percent of the wild pandas in China and share an ecological corridor linking 13 panda living habitats, said the official.

"Thanks to the protection system established by Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park which integrates protection, monitoring and scientific research, the tiger and leopard population has continuously increased. Up to now, the number of Siberian tigers has exceeded 50, and the number of Amur leopards has exceeded 60," said Guan.

As for the protection and restoration of tropical rainforest environments, Guan said the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park concentrated is playing a vital role.

The park also set up a protection and research center for gibbons. There are now 37 gibbons in six families at the park, according to Guan.

The Wuyi Mountains National Park implemented overall ecological protection, green development and livelihood improvement.

According to the NFGA, the layout plan launched last year set up 49 national park candidate areas, covering 10.3 percent of the land area in the country and is home to more than 5,000 species of terrestrial vertebral wildlife and 29,000 species of vascular plants. These national parks provide habitats for over 80 percent of key state-protected wildlife species.

"Next, we have three key missions: first, to accelerate the enactment of a law on national parks; second, to ensure high-quality development of the five national parks already launched; third, to actively promote establishment of new national parks," said Guan.

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