East China’s Jiangsu province has added more than 800 species, according to the province’s latest biodiversity background survey released Tuesday by the provincial department of ecology and environment.
The latest survey shows that the number of species in Jiangsu has increased from 6,046 last year to the current 6,903.
Among the 857 species that have grown, nearly 60% are aquatic organisms, reflecting the continuous improvement of Jiangsu's water environment quality.
According to the recently-issued implementation opinions on further strengthening biodiversity protection, Jiangsu will meet the national goals in terms of forest coverage, natural coastline retention, and natural wetland protection in the next five years.
Jiangsu will also ensure that the proportion of ecological protection red lines is higher than the scale approved by the State Council.
By 2023, Jiangsu will investigate the details of biodiversity in all counties, and issue the first batch of "Jiangsu Province Biodiversity Red List" and "Jiangsu Province Invasive Alien Species List".
On the basis of actively promoting relevant legislation, Jiangsu will also build more than 5 ecological island pilot areas in a bid to implement scientific, active and appropriate manual intervention measures for polluted, damaged, destroyed and disturbed natural ecosystems, so as to gradually improve the quality and stability of the ecological environment in the region, and to effectively restore the habitats of species.
