Mount Fanjing National Nature Reserve, located in southwest China’s Guizhou Province, has officially been added to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Green List of Protected and Conserved Areas, as announced by local authorities in Tongren City on Sunday.
The IUCN’s Green List is a global initiative aimed at promoting biodiversity conservation by recognizing well-managed protected and conserved areas. It sets a global standard for assessing the effectiveness of conservation management in these areas. Mount Fanjing’s inclusion on this list highlights the reserve’s success in conservation efforts and its key role in preserving global biodiversity, as noted by officials in Tongren, the region where the mountain is situated.
The IUCN is expected to reveal the updated Green List for 2024 during the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which will be held in Colombia in late October. As a UNESCO World Heritage Site covering 775 square kilometers, Mount Fanjing provides valuable insight into the geological history of southern China and acts as an ecological buffer for the middle and upper sections of the Yangtze River.
With a well-preserved ecosystem representative of Central Asian subtropical primeval forests, Mount Fanjing is home to 7,925 species of wild plants and animals, including ancient relict plants and endangered species like the Guizhou golden monkey and the rare Abies fanjingshanensis tree.
