Biological Conservation

Shaanxi's unremitting efforts in perfecting the management and protection system of biodiversity are generating more and more effects. More than 90% of the province's wild animal and plant species are under protection.

At present, Shaanxi boasts 931 species of wild vertebrates, 159 species of wild animals and birds under state key protection, including 37 species under State Level I protection and 122 species under State Level II protection, represented by giant panda, takin, golden monkey and crested ibis. There are 52 species of provincial-level protected animals, more than 4,600 species of seed plants, 3,291 species of Chinese medicinal materials, and 212 species of wild plants under state and local key protection.

Biodiversity protection has made positive progress, and the province's biodiversity has achieved restorative growth. Rare and endangered wild plants, such as Qinling Taxus Chinensis, Davidia Involucrata, Kingdonia Uniflora, Ppsathyrostachys Huashanica, and Larix Chinensis have been effectively protected. The distribution of wild Cymbidium Hybridum has expanded to the northern foot of the Qinling Mountains. Primula Filchnerae Knuth was rediscovered in Yangxian County in 2015, a period of over a century since its last discovery. Kingdonia Uniflora, a first class state key protected wild plant, known as a "natural indicator" of an excellent ecological environment, was first discovered in June 2021 at a place below the altitude of 2,700 meters of Taibai Mountain in the Qinling Mountains.

Shaanxi ranked first in China in terms of the number increase, density, and DNA acquisition rate of wild population of giant panda, and the number of musk deer in artificial breeding forests in Qinling Mountains. The crested ibis is known as "a successful example of saving endangered species in the world" by the International Union for the Conservation of Birds. The population of North China Leopard in Ziwuling forestry area of Yan'an is also the largest leopard population with the highest density found in China. Work has been done in raising, breeding, proliferating and release of Brachymystax Lenok Tsinlingensis in Qinling Mountains. Wild resources have been gradually restored.