China's State Environment Protection Administration has just released an outline on China's biological species resource protection and utilization in which it sets a general goal for biological species protection and utilization for the coming 15 years and says that the dramatic reduction of biological species shall be basically restricted by 2010.
The "Planning Outline on National Biological Species Resource Protection and Utilization" says that the general goals for the coming 15 years are keeping the dramatic drop of biological species under limits by 2010, keeping the biological species loss and disappearance basically under control by 2010 and having the biological species effectively protected by 2020.
The Planning Outline asks that five principles be kept during the protection and utilization of species, namely, the principle of national sovereignty; the principle of science; the principle of prior protection; the principle of coordinating protection and utilization; and the principle of participation by many parties.
Due to a rapid increase of population, the excessive exploitation of species, the introduction of external species, environment pollution and climate change, China is suffering a serious loss and disappearance of biological species. This planning outline has been jointly compiled by sixteen Chinese units including SEPA, China's National Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Education, and Ministry of Science and Technology.
