Guizhou's biodiversity ranks among top in China

The Guizhou provincial forestry department and Guiyang forestry bureau held a promotional event on Oct 11-12 in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou, to promote Guizhou's biodiversity.

Located in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Guizhou's average elevation is about 1,100 meters. It is home to 984 rivers with lengths of more than 10 kilometers, and has various geomorphic types.

So far, Guizhou has detected 24,547 biological species, ranking fourth in China after Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Sichuan province, and Yunnan province.

Guizhou ranks third in terms of the number of wild animal species and fourth in terms of the number of wild plant species.

Guizhou golden monkeys appear in the northeast of Fanjing Mountain. [Photo/ddcpc website]

In 2020, Guizhou had 162 million mu (10.8 million hectares) of forests, the forest stock volume was 609 million cubic meters, and the forest coverage rate was 61.51 percent.

During the same period, Guizhou's grassland area was 2.84 million mu, with a comprehensive vegetation coverage of 88.1 percent. Guizhou also has 53 wetland parks totaling an area of 1.05 million mu and occupying 0.4 percent of Guizhou's total land area.

According to the list of wild plant species under State protection released by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in September this year, Guizhou has 76 wild plant species under State protection, including seven under first-grade national protection.

Guizhou has detected 1,085 species and subspecies of vertebrates, accounting for 16 percent of China's total. Guizhou's most famous species, such as the Guizhou golden monkey, Guizhou warty newt, Guizhou salamander, and Leishan spiny toad, are under State protection.