North China's Shanxi province has made significant strides in restoring and protecting its natural ecosystems and creating harmonious habitats for wildlife. This has led to a notable increase in the province's biodiversity.

Shanxi has established 272 nature reserves, covering a total area of 2.44 million hectares. These reserves protect 80.9 percent of the province's key wildlife species and provide excellent environments for their growth, reproduction, overwintering, foraging, migration, and resting.

The brown eared pheasant, the provincial bird, has seen its distribution expand from 28 counties and three reserves to 45 counties and 20 reserves, with an estimated population of around 19,000, the highest in the nation. Additionally, the North China leopard, a precious species in Shanxi, has been spotted at all 36 of the province's reserves, indicating an increase in population and habitat area.

Shanxi has focused on regulating wildlife protection, monitoring, migratory bird activities, damage compensation, and disease prevention by introducing and revising nine provincial policies involving laws, lists, plans, and contingency measures, ensuring that wildlife protection is legally and procedurally sound.

The province will continue monitoring key species and protecting and restoring their habitats. Efforts will also be made to protect critically endangered wild plants and implement wildlife damage prevention and compensation in 24 key counties to further elevate the province's biodiversity.