On June 5th, authority of Tibet Autonomous Region announced that Tibet hosts 125 kinds of wild animals under state protection, their population accounting for 30 percent of the total animals protected by the state.

The Environment Communiqué of Tibet 2012 published on the World Environment Day offers a review of the current conditions of Tibet’s biodiversity.

Garma Tsedeng, spokesman of Tibet local government, said Tibet, as the main body of the Tibet plateau, is endowed with abundant natural and wildlife resources, thus holding an indispensable position in global ecological development.

As one of the places in the world where biodiversity thrives, Tibet serves as a germplasm bank of biodiversity. According to the database of the communiqué, Tibet is home to over 9,600 wild plants including more than 6,400 advanced breeds belonging to over 270 families and 1,510 genuses. Among them, 855 breeds are native to Tibet and 300 breeds can be applied to traditional Tibetan medicine.

On the other hand, Tibet is home to 798 breeds of vertebrate animals among which 196 can only be found in Tibet. These include state protected rare animals such as Tibetan kiangs, yaks and antelopes.

The communiqué also declares that Tibet hosts 90 percent of the world’s schizothoracinae in terms of numbers and breeds. Tibet provides habitat for 488 kinds of birds, among which 22 are aboriginal. Besides, there are over 4,000 hexapeopoda living in Tibet.

Till the end of 2012, Tibet had established 47 different kinds of natural reserves covering 412,200 square kilometers, i.e. one third of the total land area of Tibet Autonomous Region.

Garma Tsedeng added that last year, 10 ecological shelter projects had been implemented with a total actual investment of 0.67 billion yuan. Various ecological compensation funds totaling 3.68 billion yuan had been put to place and a long-term ecological mechanism had been set up.

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