Guangdong makes every effort to create the Nanling Mountain National Park to boost green beauty Guangdong's ecological construction Guangdong Province | Guangdong | China

China News Network, Guangzhou, August 15, by wire, Title: the Nanling Mountain National Park was created in Guangdong to boost the ecological construction of green and beautiful Guangdong

China News Network reporter Cheng Jingwei

National parks are the most important land or sea areas in China's natural ecosystems, with the most unique natural landscape, the most essence of natural heritage, the richest biodiversity, and national representative natural ecosystems.

In recent years, Guangdong Province has made every effort to create the the Nanling Mountain National Park, carried out local protection actions with the national park as the core, constantly constructed and improved the scientific and standardized terrestrial wildlife protection system, and built a green and beautiful Guangdong where people and nature coexist harmoniously.

The Nanling Mountain Green Pearl: Abundant Biodiversity

"This is Guangdong Hanxiao, a unique species in Guangdong Province and also a nationally protected wild plant." Recently, at the Shimentai National Nature Reserve in Guangdong, senior engineer Li Yuanqiu introduced the rare plant Guangdong Hanxiao to reporters. Guangdong Hanxiao is an evergreen small tree or shrub, with its petioles, back of leaves, and flower buds densely covered with red brown flat soft hairs. The breeze blows by, shining with golden light.

Shimentai National Nature Reserve is located in the north of Yingde City, Qingyuan City, Guangdong Province, on the southern edge of the Nanling Mountain Mountains. It is known as the "the Nanling Mountain Green Pearl" because of its rich wildlife resources. According to Guo Guoxin, Director of the Shimentai National Nature Reserve Management Bureau in Guangdong Province, the reserve is located in the transitional zone between the South and Central Subtropics. The terrain is undulating, the strata are ancient and diverse, the terrain is complex, the transitional climate is suitable, and it has a variety of ecological environments.

Guangdong Grand Canyon. Photo by journalist Chen Jimin

At present, the Shimentai National Nature Reserve in Guangdong Province has a total of 2823 species of higher plants and 420 species of terrestrial vertebrate wildlife. In recent years, the protected area has successively discovered plants such as Guangdong Michelin, Shimentai White Silk Grass, and Japanese Snake Zizania, as well as animals such as the English German eyelid tiger, the Puji eyelid tiger, and the Chinese Turbulent Frog. Among them, in 2014, the Shimentai white silk grass was discovered on the "bottom roof" of the protected area at an altitude of more than 1580 meters, making it the fifth species of white silk grass discovered in China and increasing the number of white silk grass species worldwide to 11.

Relevant experts pointed out that the discovery of new species in succession in Shimentai Nature Reserve further confirmed the rich species diversity in the region, and at the same time consolidated the ecological foundation for high-quality development of the Nanling Mountain National Park, the first national park in Guangdong.

Guangdong's largest species gene bank: frequent occurrence of national first-class protected animals

As an important part of the Nanling Mountain National Park, the Nanling Mountain National Nature Reserve is the largest forest ecosystem type nature reserve in Guangdong Province. Here is the largest primeval forest in Guangdong Province and the largest biological species gene pool in Guangdong.

In recent years, rare wild animals have been continuously monitored in the Nanling Mountain National Nature Reserve. Last September, the protected area captured a precious video of the national first-class protected wild animal, the golden spotted beaked butterfly. After confirmation, this is the first recorded image of the golden spotted phoenix butterfly in the protected area so far. It is reported that the Golden Spot billed Phoenix Butterfly is known as the "Dream Butterfly" and "Queen of Butterflies". It can only reproduce two generations per year and is a unique species in China. It is the only butterfly species under national first-class protection in China and ranks first among the world's eight precious butterflies. Its wild survival is very rare and rarely discovered.

Crocodile lizard. Photo by journalist Chen Jimin

In May this year, when the scientific research team in the Nanling Mountain National Nature Reserve monitored two populations of the yellow bellied horned pheasant, they found precious and clear images of the activities of the family of the first class national protected wild animal, the yellow bellied horned pheasant. The yellow bellied pheasant is a rare bird unique to China, only living in the deep mountainous areas of some southern provinces. Due to its rarity, it is known as the "giant panda" among birds, and high-definition images of young yellow bellied pheasants are also very rare.

According to the latest statistics, there are 3892 species of wild higher plants belonging to 267 families, 1262 genera in the Nanling Mountain National Nature Reserve, Guangdong Province, according to the relevant responsible person of the Administration of Nanling National Nature Reserve. The number of wild plant species preserved in this protected area exceeds half of the total species in Guangdong Province, and it has the characteristics of rich species composition, obvious tropical components, ancient origins, and prominent endemic phenomena.

At the same time, there are 649 species of wild vertebrates in the protected area, including a total of 97 species under national key protection, including clouded leopard, yellow bellied pheasant, Mangshan original spear headed pit viper, golden spotted beaked phoenix butterfly, Chinese pangolin, and so on.

The Nanling Mountain National Park entered the stage of establishment and approval

The planned area of the proposed the Nanling Mountain National Park is about 1931.57 square kilometers, involving Shaoguan and Qingyuan, integrating 14 nature reserves. It is a high concentration area of unique, rare and endangered species, with very rich species resources. According to statistics, there are 5470 species of wild animals and plants recorded in the proposed the Nanling Mountain National Park. Among them, there are 4748 species of wild higher plants, accounting for 71.31% of the total wild higher plants in the province; There are 722 species of terrestrial vertebrate wildlife, accounting for 68.63% of the total terrestrial vertebrate wildlife in the province.

Tianjingshan Waterfall in Guangdong. Photo by journalist Chen Jimin

"The Nanling Mountain National Park is a collection area of biota in China's subtropical transition zone. Both plant diversity and terrestrial vertebrate diversity are extremely rich areas of terrestrial biodiversity in China and a concentration area of rare and endangered species." Huang Jinling, an expert of Guangdong Provincial Natural Reserves Expert Committee, introduced that the Nanling Mountain National Park is not only one of the key areas of terrestrial biodiversity with international significance, but also one of China's mountain ecosystems and biodiversity hotspots. In terms of terrestrial biodiversity, it has global scientific protection value.

It is reported that from 2020 to 2023, Guangdong Provincial Finance has implemented a total of about 360 million yuan of national park construction funds, and has successively promoted the implementation of special debt funds of 4.019 billion yuan for 33 projects, which will be used for the construction of regional supporting infrastructure driven by the radiation of the Nanling Mountain National Park. At present, three small hydropower removal pilot projects within the scope of the National Park, the landscape improvement of the entrance corridor of the Nanling Mountain National Park, the construction of the South China History Research Base, the closure and conservation of natural forests, the demarcation of national parks, the open ecological experience community and other projects have been completed, and the construction of the Smart the Nanling Mountain National Park and the the Nanling Mountain National Park Museum and other projects are being orderly promoted.

Egrets dance in Nanshui Lake, Guangdong. Photo by journalist Chen Jimin

At present, the establishment of the Nanling Mountain National Park has achieved breakthrough results and entered the stage of establishment and approval. It was learned from the Forestry Bureau of Guangdong Province that, in the next step, Guangdong Province will continue to promote the construction of the Nanling Mountain National Park, promote the establishment of a unified, standardized and efficient national park system, explore a balanced model of strict ecosystem protection and rational utilization of resources, and build a green and beautiful Guangdong where people and nature coexist harmoniously.

【