Animal
18:37, 19-Aug-2017
National park set up in NE China to protect endangered wild cats
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The administration of a Chinese national park aiming to protect two vulnerable species of wild cats was officially inaugurated on Saturday.
The "Northeast Tiger and Leopard National Park Management Bureau" has been created to oversee the affairs of the park, currently under construction in northeast China.
The nature reserve, expected to cover an area of 14,600 square kilometers, aims to protect Siberian tigers and Amur leopards – both marked as endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
CGTN Photo
CGTN Photo
CGTN Photo
CGTN Photo
The Siberian Tiger, or Northeast tiger as it is known in Mandarin, is widely known in China as an endangered wild animal.
The country has been taking measures to protect the species for decades, but this is the first time China has set up a national-level office to coordinate protection efforts.
"Everything will now be managed in a unified and vertical manner," said Tang Xiaoping, deputy director of the National Park Office at the State Forestry Administration.
"The new office reports directly to the central government."
The administration has just finished a field survey about effect of humans on the vulnerable wild cats, which will provide detailed data that could help with the construction of the national park.
About 70 percent of the sanctuary will be located in Jilin Province, while the rest in Heilongjiang Province, both in northeast China
The construction work will be completed in 2020.