During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) invested a total of 10.1 billion yuan in environmental protection and ecological construction, triple that of the 10th Five-Year Plan period, as released at the 2011 Tibet Environmental Protection Working Conference held on Jan. 4, 2011.

"During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, Tibet Autonomous Region built eight new prefectural-level nature reserves, including the Midikha Wetland, and received a special fund of 6.95 million yuan for state nature reserves to carry out the standardization construction for Mount Qomolangma and Lhalu Wetland reserves," said Zhang Yongze, director-general of TAR Environmental Protection Department.

Altogether 90.02 million yuan was invested in the protection of key wetlands and the construction of nature reserves, such as Zayul Ciba Nature Reserve and Mangkam Nature Reserve of Yunnan golden monkeys, added Zhang.

Figures show that as of 2010, the Tibet Autonomous Region built 47 nature reserves of different kinds with a total acreage of 413,700 square kilometers, occupying 34.47% of the total land area of TAR, and 21 ecological protection zones, effectively protecting the major ecological zones and biodiversity in TAR.

In addition, Tibet actively carried out the project of protecting ecological safety shelter zones. As of now, 2.5 billion yuan of the total state investment for "Tibet Ecological Safety Shelter Zone Protection and Construction" has been used to completely carry out ten projects of 3 major kinds.

In a bid to protect Tibet's blue sky and clear water, the TAR’s Environmental Protection Department allocated the central government's special fund of 9.5 million yuan for environmental protection to assist five public institutions in sewage treatment and close down two out-of-date cement production lines, and spent the central government's special fund of 7.15 million yuan and TAR's financial special fund of 16.05 million yuan in carrying out environmental protection projects in 11 drinking-water waterhead areas.