Tianzhu county, in Gansu province, has put a halt to all logging of its forests across a more than 38,000-hectare space in the Qilian Mountain Natural Forest Reserve to preserve its forest coverage, providing protection for 285,633 hectares of natural forest in all.

These achievements owe a lot to the county's ecological development strategy and environmental improvement plans.

A second stage of Tianzhu's natural forest protection project began in 2011 on a 1,409-hectare stretch of land, with the protected areas separated into 25 parcels, where forest rangers could patrol no fewer than 22 days a month.

China's National Reform and Development Commission already made Tianzhu a pilot county as part of its ecological civilization project in 2012, along with three other Gansu counties, and the county won national, provincial and city honors for its forest fire prevention several times.

Horse running freely on the Qilian Mountain Natural Forest Reserve's grassland. [Photo/xinhuanet.com]