China Bans hunting in its Largest Rainforest
12/12/97
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Headline: China Bans hunting in its Largest Rainforest
Source: Agence France-Presse
Date: 12/12/97
Copyright 1997 by Agence France-Presse
BEIJING, Dec 12 (AFP) - Chinese authorities have banned hunting
of wild animals in a tropical rainforest in the southwestern Chinese
province of Yunnan, the official Xinhua news agency said Friday.
The ban on poaching, peddling and processing wild animals was
introduced to protect endangered wildlife in Xishuangbanna, China's
largest tropical rainforest, Xinhua said.
It went into effect last month, the report said.
The forest, which borders Burma and Laos, is home to 99 types of
endangered species under state protection.
It also sustains 427 species of birds, 1,437 types of insects
and 67 other species.
Xishuangbanna wildlife officials and police have punished
poachers and confiscated their hunting weapons, Xinhua said, without
giving details of the number of poachers punished and what penalty
they received.
Killing certain endangered animals in China -- such as the panda
or the tiger -- is punishable by death.