Thanks to continuous improvements to ecological environment, China's capital city Beijing is seeing a rise in biodiversity.
A new round of afforestation project carried out from 2018 to 2022 added about 68,000 hectares of green areas in Beijing. By the end of 2022, Beijing's forest coverage rate had reached 44.8 percent, expanding the capital's green ecological space significantly, according to the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.
In the past five years, Beijing built 180 urban leisure parks and 323 small parks and green areas, and 88 percent of residents lived near parks and green spaces within a radius of 500 meters.
The ecological index (EI) of Beijing was 71.1 last year, with a year-on-year growth of 0.4 percent. This was a steady improvement for several years in a row. EI is a comprehensive index that reflects the urban environmental quality, the function of ecological spatial patterns and the biodiversity status.
A first sign of improved biological conditions is a greater variety of migratory birds, including those that previously did not frequent the Chinese capital. During the latest survey, 12 new bird species were found in Beijing, bringing the total number of bird species in the Chinese capital to 515.
"We have planned and built 79 protected natural areas in the vast mountainous areas in Beijing, and effectively protected over 90 percent of key wildlife and their habitats. Currently, Beijing has a total of 608 species of terrestrial wild animals, and 2,088 varieties of wild plants. So Beijing is building itself into a Biodiversity Capital," said Gao Dawei, Party chief of the Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau.
