SND bags fruits in ecological protection efforts

The Caishi Park, which is transformed from a quarry, has become a popular site in Suzhou New District. [Photo/WeChat account: snd-szgxqfb]

Suzhou New District in East China's Jiangsu province has stepping up ecological protection in recent years, realizing green coverage rate of 46 percent, local media outlets reported.

Mountain quarrying used to be an important industry in SND as well as the main livelihood for farmers living in the central and western parts of the district.

In recent years, SND has closed 95 quarries and invested around 500 million yuan ($74.4 million) in afforesting a total area of 298 hectares, turning them into beautiful parks known as Caishi Lake, Wulong Mountain, Pengshan Mountain, and Engu Mountain.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) period, SND has added or rebuilt a total of 59 hectares of green areas and completed planted 1,300 hectares of forests consisting of 40,000 wood varieties.

SND carries out publicity activities on the protection of wild animals every year and has rescued wild animals more than 80 times. It also carries out routine monitoring of wild birds at four terrestrial wildlife monitoring sites.

Located in the Taihu Lake basin, SND is rich in wetland resources, with over 11,000 hectares of natural wetland area, 7,070 hectares of which are under protection. By establishing wetland protection zones, the protection rate of natural wetlands in the district has increased from 60.3 percent to 64.3 percent as of 2021.