As many as 868 species of wild animals and plants live in the Holan Mountains, which have the world's highest concentration of blue sheep, a rare animal under the Chinese government's special protection, according to a survey.

This year, the Holan Mountains area was completely closed to livestock herding and firewood gathering in order to facilitate the afforestation project, reserve administration officials said.

Forest coverage in the Holan Mountains has risen by up to 14 percent from the previous level of less than 10 percent, while some 690 kinds of wild plants grow in the natural reserve.

The number of many endangered plants, such as the Mongolian almond tree, also recorded a steady increase.

The reserve also provided a perfect haven for more than 170 kinds of wild animals, with the total number of blue sheep exceeding 10,000, they added.

Situated on the border of the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in northwest China, the Holan Mountains stretch more than 250 kilometers from north to south and serve as a natural shield against the expansion of desert from the west and the Siberian cold current from the north.

The environment of this region has been badly damaged by excessive herding and tree felling.

In 1988, the Chinese government designated an area of 153,333 hectares in Ningxia a national natural reserve. A joint project between China and Germany on natural forest protection at the eastern foot of the Holan Mountains was launched in 1995.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2002)