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CAS Reports Focus on Resource, Environment Research

Source: Science and Technology Daily | 2023-01-12 10:09:51 | Author: Staff Reporters


Migratory birds settle around Poyang Lake, the largest freshwater lake in east China's Jiangxi province, to spend the winter. (PHOTO: VCG)

By Staff Reporters

In late 2022, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) released five research reports on lakes, wetlands, mountains, northwestern arid areas, and eastern mega city clusters, indicating that remarkable progress has been achieved in these five fields since the 18th CPC National Congress, while proposing suggestions to tackle problems occurred in development.

The Lake Ecological Environment Research Report shows the ecological environment of lakes is improving, with stably increasing biodiversity, and improved stability of the ecosystem. For example, the population of finless porpoises in Poyang Lake increased from 450 in 2012 to over 700 in 2021, and the total number of wintering migratory birds in the lake increased from 357,000 in 2012 to 689,000 in 2020.

The diversity of plant and aquatic invertebrate communities and the number of waterbirds have also seen an increase. According to the Wetland Research Report, since the implementation of the "Returning farmland to wetland" policy in 2014, a community with typical local wetland plants as the dominant species has been formed in Sanjiang Plain in 2019, and the number of aquatic invertebrates increased from 34 in 2014 to 45 in 2021.

Mountainous areas in China account for 83 percent of the most important areas for biodiversity conservation. The Development Report on Mountainous Areas said, over the last decade, protected mountainous areas increased by 14.4 percent to 1.17 million square kilometers, accounting for 65.3 percent of the country's total protected areas. Meanwhile, the habitat space of wild animals has expanded and the population of wild animals increased.

According to the Research Report on Water Resources and Ecological Environment in Arid Areas of Northwest China, water use efficiency has been improved. The area of water-saving irrigation has expanded, while the efficiency of agricultural water for production is significantly enhanced.

The Ecological Environment Research Report on Mega City Clusters in Eastern China shows that the three mega-city clusters in east China, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster, Yangtze River Delta city cluster, and Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area city cluster, account for about 31.43 percent of the country's total carbon emissions in 2019, noting that achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality should be set as the goal to promote high-quality growth of the eastern mega city clusters.

In the long term, urban cities should improve the efficiency of resource and energy utilization, accelerate the exploration of non-carbon energy, and explore reasonable ways to reduce high-emission industries, said researchers from CAS.


Editor: 钟建丽

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