China has experienced an invasion of more than 20 species alien
to the country in the past decade and the situation shows signs of
worsening, scientists warned here on Sunday.
China is one of the countries that suffer most from alien
invasive species and has recorded more than 400 such species so
far, said Guo Yu Yuan, researcher of the Institute of Plant
Protection of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
More than half of the 100 dangerous alien species listed by the
World Conservation Union (IUCN) has been found in China, said Guo,
who is also academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, at a
symposium in Fuzhou, capital of east China's Fujian Province.
The invasion of alien species is on the rise in China with
fast-growing foreign trade, and has brought about more and more
biological problems, said Xie Lianhui, academician of Chinese
Academy of Sciences.
Wan Fanghao, an official with the ministry of agriculture, said
some alien species have already caused disasters in the
country.
The American White Moth, native to North America and first
detected in Northeast China's Liaoning Province in 1979, is
threatening forests and crops in 116 counties of six provinces and
municipalities in China including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and
Liaoning, according to the State Forestry Administration (SFA).
The moth denude a tree, and consume vegetables and crops in
days. It boasts a strong reproduction ability. A female moth can
lay some 2,000 eggs in one go, and can breed 30 million to 200
million descendants a year, according to biologists.
It is also reported that water hyacinth is posing a serious
problem in rivers, lakes and ponds in south and southeast China's
Guangdong and Fujian provinces, southwest China's Yunnan Province,
east China's Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and in Shanghai.
A total of 32 alien species are causing damage worth 56 billion
yuan to China's forestry industry every year, according to Zhu
Lieke, vice director of the SFA at a forum in September.
Every year 10.7 million hectares of forest in China are damaged
by harmful species and 20 percent of these are damaged by alien
species, Zhu said.
A total of 127 scientists from across the countries attended the
symposium in Fuzhou and signed a Fuzhou Accord, calling for the
establishment of a national society on alien species and enhanced
cooperation with foreign counterparts.
(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2007)
