China and Canada will cooperate on protecting the biodiversity of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Canadian International Development Agency will provide 33 million yuan (about four million U.S. dollars) to fund the project.

A Memorandum of Understanding for the project was signed here Wednesday by Long Yongtu, chief negotiator of the Ministry Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and the Canadian Ambassador to China Howard Balloch.

The project is the first joint efforts between China and Canada concerning biodiversity. It's also the first time an international cooperative project on nature reserves has been developed for the autonomous region.

Inner Mongolia is endowed with diverse ecosystems and rich biodiversity. In order to protect these biological resources, 96 nature reserves of various types had been established in the region by the end of 2000.

However, these reserves have been suffering from a shortage of funds. At the same time, overgrazing, random felling, removal of vegetation as well as soil erosion have led to serious deterioration of the habitat required to maintain the biodiversity in the area.
This project is aimed at developing new approaches to protecting biodiversity so as to sustain and improve the livelihood of the people in the local communities, said Xie Zhenhua, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.