BEIJING, Dec. 2, 2025/ PRNewswire/– Towering like a pagoda, with scale-like leaves and roots grasping rocks, this tree stands upright on high cliffs.
Thuja sutchuenensis is a threatened gymnosperm plant distinct to China Stemming from the age of dinosaurs over 100 million years back, it grew throughout the Cretaceous duration. Harboring irreplaceable hereditary resources, it is referred to as the “plant huge panda.”
Thuja sutchuenensis was very first found in 1892. Today, the peaks in Chongqing’s Kaizhou district, Chengkou county, Wuxi county and Sichuan Province’s Xuanhan county are the staying environments for this relic plant.
This location lies on the southern foothills of the Daba Mountains, in the heart of the 3 Gorges Tank location, an important water preservation zone in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
In 1998, due to an absence of clinical records, the International Union for Preservation of Nature (IUCN) stated Thuja sutchuenensis extinct. Later on, regional Chongqing scientists passed through mountains and rivers, finding wild Thuja sutchuenensis trees on remote cliffs.
In a conference on the advancement of the Yangtze River Economic Belt kept in early 2016, President Xi Jinping worried “green advancement” of the area and stated to bring back eco-friendly environment would be a frustrating job.
From termination to rediscovery
At an elevation of 1,600 meters lies Xinyuan Town, Dajin Municipality. On the mountain, there is an almost 30-meter-tall Thuja suthuenensis tree that is 127 years of ages.
Yang Quan, previous director of the Chongqing Xuebaoshan National Nature Reserve Management Affairs Center, described that wild Thuja sutchuenensis just exists in a narrow location on the southern foothills of the Daba Mountains.
The deep canyons and high ridges of the mountains acted as an “ark” throughout the Quaternary glaciation, maintaining this ancient types.
As an ancient types, the Thuja sutchuenensis has a far higher capability to adjust to environment modification and geographical change than regular plants, including irreplaceable stress-resistant genes and holding considerable clinical, eco-friendly, and cultural worth.
” In the past, who understood what the Thuja sutchuenensis was?” In Xiaoyuan Town, wood from the tree was utilized for building and home products. Throughout the peak of unrestrained advancement, the yearly wood harvest in the Kaizhou district went beyond 80,000 cubic meters.
” The mountains were so bald it appeared like ‘favus,'” remembered Liu Xingxiang, an old forest farm employee. “Trucks lined up, filled with logs, their tracks so deep, like a newly raked field.”
The termination of Thuja sutchuenensis might activate a “cause and effect,” interrupting the whole community. Getting nationwide attention, the Xuebaoshan Nature Reserve was quickly developed. It was later on updated to a nationwide reserve in 2012.
A shift in frame of mind
” The community is a unified natural system, a natural chain of synergistic and carefully connected aspects.”
In 2015, the Central Committee of the Communist Celebration of China and the State Council provided reform strategies clarifying an extensive stop to industrial logging of natural forests across the country by 2017. Secret state-owned forest locations transitioned from advancement and usage to thorough defense.
Chongqing has actually carried its duty. The Kaizhou district carried out “3 Restrictions”: prohibiting logging of natural forests, prohibiting industrial logging, and prohibiting building in safeguarded locations. It processed lots of unlawful cases, holding individuals liable. The widespread logging was reversed and the forest protection rate in the Kaizhou district has actually increased by 4.7 portion points considering that 2018.
Beginning in 2020, the Kaizhou district carried out zoned management by marking eco-friendly defense red lines, representing 28.28 percent of the district’s acreage.
Huang Jilan, head of the General Department of the Xuebaoshan Reserve, is a “third-generation forestry employee.” The senior members in her household logged trees, now she secures them. “We require to ‘revive’ the Thuja sutchuenensis trees we lost, one by one.”
Chen Zongbing, who when depend on logging for a living, ended up being a ranger and eco-preservation promoter. “You understand, the Thuja sutchuenensis is a treasure! Harming it will land you in prison!”
Thuja sutchuenensis trees grow on risky peaks. Reserve personnel when perform harmful studies as “cliff climbers.” Now, field studies are helped by drones and video monitoring. “We are likewise acquiring LiDAR devices to tape-record comprehensive 3D information for each wild Thuja sutchuenensis tree,” Huang Jilan stated.
To date, the reserve has actually found over 7,800 wild Thuja sutchuenensis trees, developing China’s very first local resource database that preserves a requirement of “one file per tree.” Surrounding Chengkou county likewise just recently found a location of over 5,000 trees.
From regional reproducing to moving defense, Thuja sutchuenensis is settling throughout China An overall of 1,000 seedlings have actually taken a trip to Qamdo, the Xizang Autonomous Area, and endured their hard very first year.
In Changdao, Shandong Province, where even sturdy pines had a hard time, Thuja sutchuenensis seedlings have a survival rate of over 80 percent.
Moving protects hereditary variety and use the tree’s excellent possible for eco-friendly management due to its solid vigor and capability to repair soil in location.
Thuja sutchuenensis has actually started to spread out throughout China From the high elevations of Xizang to the coast of Shandong, from the Loess Plateau to Tianmu Mountain, it has actually been transplanted to 41 websites in 17 provinces.
With a typical survival rate of over 70 percent, and exceptional survivability in cold and dry conditions, it has actually ended up being a favored types for eco-friendly repair in delicate locations.
In Might, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment promoted Thuja sutchuenensis preservation as a nationwide accomplishment in biodiversity defense.
Institutional development and eco-friendly dividends
Reforms and development are being promoted. Chongqing has actually attained complete protection of a basin-wide horizontal eco-friendly settlement system for the mainstream of the Yangtze River and its significant tributaries. It has actually incorporated information from several departments into the “Bayu Water Governance” application, slashing the time it requires to find issues.
These eco-friendly dividends have actually benefited individuals. In the Kaizhou district, villager Hu Youzhen returned home to deal with Thuja sutchuenensis breeding, making a steady earnings. Reproducing bases have actually driven over 500 homeowners to discover work close by, increasing typical yearly earnings by 30 percent.
The “green name card” draws in science camps, veggie bases, and water factories. Ganquan Town was ranked a “Gorgeous and Leisure Town of China.” Authorities are now dealing with processing eco-friendly items and seedling market jobs.
The overall output worth of Chongqing’s forestry market reached 178.05 billion yuan ($ 25 billion) in 2024.
A brand-new generation settles
Wang Lei, a graduate from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, quit a white-collar task to sign up with the Xuebaoshan Reserve. “Safeguarding this ‘living plant fossil’ is a weighty objective.”
Acknowledging the cause, “post-1990” skills Wu Hao and Cai Songyu wed regional ladies of Kaizhou, putting down roots in the mountains.
If individuals do not stop working the green mountains, the green mountains will certainly not stop working individuals.
SOURCE Global Times