The Tibet autonomous regional government has decided to spend 450 million yuan (about US$66 million) on environmental protection following the central government's approval of 20-billion-yuan investment in building an ecological safety shelter on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

The fund to be used for environmental protection is 260 million yuan more than last year, up 136 percent, according to Tibet's Environmental Protection Bureau.

The fund will be poured into pasture protection against desertification, afforestation in key areas, protecting drinking water sources, building firedamp and promoting the use of other types of clean energy.

Located at an average sea level above 4,000 meters, the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is considered a significant shelter for ecological safety to China or even the whole of Asia.

However, with the serious situation in ecological environment deterioration on the whole, grassland degeneration, land desertification, glacier melting, water loss and soil erosion have become major factors affecting China's environment in general. Therefore, the Central Government has decided to bring Tibet into the scope of key ecological environmental protection regions, building the shelter for ecological safety on the plateau.

By 2030, construction of three ecological safety shelters will have been completed, namely, Northen Qinghai-Tibet Plateau-Western Tibet shelter, Southern Tibet-Middle Himalaya shelter and Southeastern Tibet-Eastern Tibet shelter.

(Xinhua News Agency March 2, 2009)