Among the high Hengduan Mountains and deep valleys grow many kinds of plants and live countless precious wild animals. Foreign experts said the Hengduan Mountains are one of the centers with the most fauna and flora in the world. Statistics from relevant departments show there are 17 species of first-grade national priority protection animals and 54 species second-grade national priority protection animals and another 400 species of common animals in the Chamdo Prefecture. Also, there are over, 1,000 species of high-grade plants. What should be noted are the two wild animal protection areas at prefectural level. The nature reserve of Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys in Mangkang covers an area of 1,853 square km. Of the 1,000 Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys existing in the world today, 600 now live in the Mankang nature reserve. Besides the Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, another 59 wild animals subjugated to State or regional protection also find their homes here. There are also over 100 commonly seen animals. The Changmao nature reserve of red deer in Riwoqe has a total area of 637 square km and houses nearly 30 species of wild animals at national or regional priority protection levels. Wild red deer number over 1,000. To tame the red deer, the first natural taming field of red deer in Tibet was set up as early as in the 1970s in the prairie leading to Nadaintong.

In the Zhojor Mountain about 40km away from Chamdo, German experts discovered ancient cypresses in a large area. The study shows these cypresses are about 1,200 years old. They are of great significance to the research of climate and biological development at that time. in 1976, the ancient vertebrate animal group under the comperehensive investigation team of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau with the Chinese Academy of Sciences unearthed five places with dinosaur fossils in the Daye Township of Chamdo County, which filled Tibet's blank in this field and provided precious material for the study of the geographical and climatic conditions in ancient Chamdo.

Because of its special geographical structure, Chamdo has formed a rich nonferrous metal zone. There are over 70 minerals that have been verified by geological departments including gold, silver, bronze, iron, chromium, molybdenum, uranium, cobalt, arsenic, coal, crystal stone, Iceland spar, jade and limestone. The Yulong bronze mine in Gyamda has been recently verified to have a deposit of 6.5cm million tons. They quality of the bronze is high, accompanied by certain amounts of gold, silver, molybdenum and iron. It is one of the largest bronze mines in the Tibet autonomous Region. The Machala coalmine has proven to have a recent deposit of 1.7 million tons. The salt deposits of the Yozha mine in Zogang are over 400 million tons. The arsenic deposit of the Wolho mine in Chamdo totals 280,000 tons. The Laoran gold mine in Mangkang also has rich deposits.

The Jinshajiang, Lancangjiang and Nujiang rivers all go through Chamdo Prefecture. The annual flow capacity is about 38.9 billion cubic meters. Counting other river, the annual flow capacity in Chamdo is over 40 billion cubic meters. Usable water resources can produce 40 million kW of power.

The forest area is about 2.6 million hectares. Over 20 species of trees with a high economic value, including spruce, fir, Nepal camphor tree, Tibetan red fir, Apline pine and birch, are mainly scattered in the upper section of the Hengduan Mountains and middle and upper ranges of the Nujiang River. The storage volume of wood is 167 million cubic meters and the forest coverage rate is 23.9 percent.

Of the 1,200 kinds of plants, 750 are medicinal materials, mainly including rhizome of wind-weed, bulb of fritillary, rhubarb, Chinese angelica, dangshen and pseudo-ginseng. Some precious medicines enjoy a good reputation in eastern Tibet, and throughout the country. The prefecture also has certain production capacity of wild animal medicines such as musk, pilose antler and cow bezoar. The Chinese caterpillar fungas produced in Chamdo, in particular, are famous both at home and abroad. The annual production is 10,000 to 15,000 kg.

Livestock products are also abundant. The whole prefecture has a total of 3.53 million domestic animals. The annual number of animals for sale is 450,000. The pasture can provide 400,000 pieces of animal skins, 26 million kg of beef and mutton, 2.5 million kg of butter and over 100 tons of cashmere each year.