A national scientific investigation will start from the Fodingshan Mountain National Natural Reserved Area in Guizhou province in southwestern China.

The nonprofit event plans to spend five years in the southeastern part of the province and use cross-industrial ideas for the first time in a serious scientific investigation, according to the press conference on November 5.

The press conference of the scientific investigation in Guizhou. [Photo provided to China Daily]

The Fodingshan National Natural Reserved Area takes up a total area of 15,200 hectares. The area survived from the quaternary glacier and became a home for plants in the same age of the dinosaurs. The local government is dedicated in environmental protection and has set green industry as the first priority in the industrial development. Not a single polluting corporation company has come to the county so far. As a result, the area maintains biological diversity.

Nearly 3,000 known species dwell in the natural reserve, including 32 protected animals and 16 rare plants. The area connects two major natural reserves in the province and has great influence on the recovery of big cats and the sustainable development of mass regional ecology.

Cross-industrial ideas are reflected in the three different routes of the scientific investigation –professional investigation, the ecology and folk experience, and exploration. Experts, reporters, tourists, and public figures will also participate. A forum on nature protection and sustainable development will bring in cutting-edge ideas and patterns.

Song Huigang, general engineer at the China Wild Animal Protection Association speaks during the press conference. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Song Huigang, general engineer at the China Wild Animal Protection Association, said that natural reserves are the last screen protecting nature. The country's increasing efforts in establishing natural reserves have received great achievements. However, the areas are influenced by the regional economic development and residents' awareness. Many violations were due to lagging economic development and low income. Therefore, promoting the sustainable economic development and improving the residential income in the natural reserved areas will be a key to the problem.

The scientific investigation will collect data and promote and introduce ecological products and tourism resources to the public.

Expert representative Ran Jingcheng introduced the week-long examination route, which includes exploration in caves and rare plants and animals. Participants of the ecology and folk culture route will learn about bird protection, experience local lives, and eat local food. The exploration route will visit the drinkable hot spring, taste organic Chinese tea, and explain the long life expectancy in the villages.

Li Ping, deputy director of Guizhou province's forestry department, said that the province set nine goals in local ecological protection last year, which included maintaining at least 132 million mu (8.8 million hectares) of forests and 3.15 million mu (210,000 hectares) of wetlands in 2020. The natural reserves will take up no less than 5.2 percent of the total area. Such goals have great influence on the ecological protection screen in the upper stream of Yangtze River and the Pearl River.

Li also invited the media to report on the fresh air with high negative oxygen ions in the province which has been praised by the Chinese president Xi Jinping.