Translation. Region: Russian Federal
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 23 (Xinhua) — The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on Thursday released an updated Catalogue of Biological Species of China, which includes 162,717 biological species and subspecies.
“Biodiversity is an important foundation for the sustainable development of humanity, and the catalog of biological species is one of the fundamental data on the biological resources of a country or region,” said Ma Keping, deputy director of the Botanical Institute of the ANC.
According to the scientist, the purpose of compiling the catalogue is to clarify the state of the country’s biodiversity and to promote scientific research and the protection of biodiversity.
Compared to last year’s version, the updated catalog additionally includes 7,353 biological species and subspecies. In the animal kingdom, 4,994 new species and 470 subspecies appeared, in the plant kingdom – 458 new species with the exclusion of five subspecies, and in the fungi kingdom – 1,045 species and another 31 subspecies.
In addition, dragonflies and earthworms appeared in the updated catalogue for the first time. According to the document, there are 895 species and subspecies of dragonflies and 405 species and subspecies of earthworms in China.
China has been updating the said catalogue annually since 2008.
In the future, greater efforts will be made to develop digital technologies and promote data integration and sharing to provide more targeted support for protecting biodiversity worldwide, Ma Keping said. -0-