Costing a total of 15.5 billion yuan (2.27 billion U.S. dollars), the project is considered conducive to improving China's regional environment and to tackling the global climatic change as well. (Xinhua Photo)

The project to build Tibet's ecological safety shelter has been well under way, involving three categories and ten sub-projects for eco-environment protection, according to the People's Daily.

Costing a total of 15.5 billion yuan (2.27 billion U.S. dollars), the project is considered conducive to improving China's regional environment and to tackling the global climatic change as well.

With its landmass accounting for one eighth of the country's total, Tibet has the world's third largest glacier reserve, next only to the North and South poles.

Tibet is also the home to the national major rivers, lakes, swamps and wetlands, and ranks first in China in terms of the total amount of water resources and forestry coverage.

To date, Tibet has established 47 nature reserves, covering 410,000 sq km, or 35 percent of its landmass, with 24 at the prefectural level, 14 at the regional level and nine at the national level.

In the region with China's largest nature reserves, 125 species of wild animals and 39 species of wild plants have been given national priority protection.

Meanwhile, some species previously considered extinct have been found in the regional nature natures, such as Tibetan red deer.

Thanks to effective preservation, the number of wildlife has been increasingly larger in recent years. For example, the population of Tibetan antelopes, or Chiru, has risen to 150,000 at present.