08:20, May 07, 2009

The Sanjiangyuan area in the middle of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has become a "paradise of wildlife" as a result of four-year protection campaign costing 7.5 billion yuan.
As the source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers, the Sanjiangyuan area is named "the water tower of China." It is located in Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in northwest China's Qinghai Province, at an average altitude of 4,200 m.

During the last 30 years in the 20th century, this area, affected by the global climatic changes and increased human activities, witnessed a continuous deterioration in its ecological environment: vegetation worsening, land desertification, glacier and water surface shrinking as well as bio-diversity reduction.
In 2005, China spent 7.5 billion yuan on environmental protection and construction in this area, such as ecological migration, restoring grazing areas to grasslands and making artificial rainfall.

According to satellite statistics from the Qinghai Provincial Meteorological Bureau, the high coverage of grasslands from 2005 to 2008 was 23,050 sq km more than that from 2003 to 2004, with an increase of 22.3 percent.
Figures also show that lakes Tso Kyaring and Tso Ngoring, known as "the sororal lakes in the Yellow River origin area," has been enlarged by 34.05 and 46.32 sq km, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Sanjiangyuan area has known as a "paradise of wildlife". Large numbers of the Tibetan gazelles, Tibetan wild donkeys, foxes, sakers and eagles form a harmonious picture.
"You can see that the number of wild animals has been increasing markedly," said Do Tsering, a leading official of Soijia Township, Zhiduo County, Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, southwest China's Qinghai Province.

In the 2007-2008 period, artificial rainfall in the Sanjiangyuan area reached 11.56 billion cu m, with the runoff of 1.59 billion cu in the Yellow River Valley.
From 2005 to 2008, the average annual precipitation was 552.7 mm, 65.9 mm more than that from 2002 to 2004,up by 16.3 percent over that from 1990 to 2004, said Chen Xiaoguang, director of the bureau.  Source:Xinhuanet