China is facing a tremendous challenge in conserving biodiversity due to natural factors like climate change and human-induced ecological damage, such as pollution and over-fishing, a Chinese official said Thursday.

China was actively trying to tackle the issue by revising conservation measures, perfecting legislation, increasing funding and encouraging broad public participation, said Wang Dehui, deputy director-general of the Department of Nature and Ecology Protection under the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Wildlife was diminishing constantly in China as a result of degradation of habitat and excessive exploitation. Of the world's 640 endangered species listed by the International Endangered Species Trade Convention, 156, or about 25 percent, were in China, Wang told a workshop on the "Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Environmental Protection in China."

He said China's environment was also being damaged by alien invasive species, and the annual economic losses were up to over 50 billion yuan (US$6.1 billion). According to a preliminary survey, half of the world's 100 worst invasive species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources had entered China.

China ranked fourth, after the United States, Canada and Argentina, in the release of transgenic crops into the environment, including field experiments and commercial production, causing a growing potential risk to biodiversity, the environment and human health, he said.

Wang said west China was the country's richest biodiversity area and was globally important, but it had become an urgent issue for China to conserve biodiversity during construction following the implementation of the West China Development Strategy.

China was revising its national Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan, adding new regulations on biosafety, alien invasive species, and access to and benefit sharing of genetic resources, in an effort to incorporate biodiversity conservation into the exploitation of resources in west China, economic construction and development, he said.

China's National Tenth Five-Year (2001-2005) Plan for Environmental Protection specified an investment of 50 billion yuan (US$6.1 billion) for priority biodiversity and eco-environment projects, and 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion) for strengthening national basic capacity building, Wang said.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2002)