North China's Shanxi province recently compiled a plan on priority regions for the protection of biodiversity, to improve sustainable socioeconomic development and levels of management of biodiversity in the province. 

The priority regions for biodiversity protection, in the middle and southern sections of the Taihang Mountains, involve 62 counties in nine cities and cover 40,360 square kilometers, accounting for 25.83 percent of the total area of Shanxi province. 

The area of forests and grasslands accounts for about 60 percent of the priority regions, followed by farmlands and shrubland, accounting for about 35 percent, as well as urban land, wetlands and barren lands, at 5 percent. 

Currently, there are 1,899 kinds of angiosperms, 14 kinds of gymnosperms, 86 kinds of ferns and 444 kinds of wild vertebrate species distributed in the priority regions. 

Officials said the priority regions cover 29 nature reserves, 21 forest parks, 15 scenic spots, five geoparks and one World Heritage Site.