} ?>
(Yicai Global) Jan. 19 -- China's top economic planner and price setter plans to better protect western China's ecology by setting up the country's first national park in the next two years.
The 123,100-square kilometer Sanjiangyuan National Park, on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, will be complete by 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission said. The park will adopt the toughest policies on environmental protection to encourage natural recovery, it added.
The park is an important water conservation area and stabilizes climates in China and even Southeast Asia. Its development will create jobs and boost income in the area.
The plan proposes to reduce the human population in the park to better preserve the mountains, forests, arable land, rivers and lake. It also hopes to restore biodiversity and improve the water quality in the Yangtze, Huang and Lancang (Mekong) Rivers, which all have headwaters located in the region.