BEIJING, Dec. 29 -- China has selected 49 candidate areas for building national parks, in order to better protect wildlife species and their habitats. This is according to a spatial layout plan for the country's national park system made public on Thursday.

The 49 candidate sites, including the five parks which have already been developed into national parks, cover an area of around 1.1 million square kilometers. These sites were selected based on their ecological importance, unique natural landscapes and rich biodiversity, said the plan jointly issued by the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

The candidate sites include 44 land areas, three sea areas, and two land-sea areas, according to the plan.

China will have the largest national park system in the world, in terms of protected areas, if all 49 candidate parks are constructed, according to the plan.

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has 13 candidate sites -- covering an area of about 770,000 square kilometers and accounting for 70 percent of the total area of national park candidate areas. The Yellow River Basin has nine candidate areas, while the Yangtze River Basin has 11 candidate sites, said the plan.