XINING -- Conservation authorities in northwest China's Qinghai Province said they have stepped up efforts to introduce foreign capital to conserve biodiversity on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.

A project supported by UNDP-GEF (Global Environment Fund) has kickstarted to strengthen the protected area (PA) system in the Qilian Mountain and the Qinghai Lake, said Gao Jingyu, deputy director of Qinghai forestry and grassland administration.

The project involves a 3 million dollar grant from the GEF and another 18 million dollars from Chinese authorities. It is scheduled to last from this year until 2023, he said.

The project aims to strengthen the legal and systematic framework, and engage local communities in managing natural resources, said Ma Chaode, a program director of the UNDP office in China.

A similar project in the area lasted from 2013 to 2017.

In 2017, a pilot project for Qilian Mountain National Park started in northwest China, covering 50,200 sq km in the provinces of Qinghai and Gansu.