Seven years after northeast China's Jilin Province banned game-hunting, wild animals are leading a safer life and the ecology has become more balanced, officials said.

Boasting vast fertile black soil, forests and pastures, Jilin has 2,700 wild plant species and 1,100 wild animal species, some of which are rare and endangered. As one of the provinces leading China in building a better ecological environment, Jilin put polices and regulations in place to punish those poaching since 1996.

During the last year alone, it investigated 460 poaching cases and other offenses, rescuing more than 3,000 wild birds and animals illegally captured by offenders, according to Zhang Lufeng, deputy director of the provincial forest department.

Animal experts and specialists were organized to survey wild animal and plant resources in the province and do related research.

Jilin has carried out six projects with international wildlife protection organizations and 40 programs with the China Wildlife Conservation Association and other governmental departments and institutes.

Over the past decade, the province's wildlife association has sent more than 100 experts to countries and regions like the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and the Republic of Korea for exchanges and cooperation.

A released provincial plan shows Jilin will set up more effective administrative systems and management networks. More personnel will be trained and more protection training courses will be made available.

(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2003)