Biodiversity conservation in China: Policies and practice

Journal of International Wildlife Law and Policy

Volumn 9, Issue 4, 2006, Pages 293-317

  McBeath, Jerry ^a   McBeath, Jenifer Huang ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BIODIVERSITY; ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY; NATURE CONSERVATION;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST;

EID: 33845407497     PISSN: 13880292     EISSN: 15481476     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/13880290601039238     Document Type: Article

References (77)

1. Tim O'Riordan & Susanne Stoll-Kleemann, Biodiversity, Sustainability and Human Communities 14 (2002).
2. United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP), Global Biodiversity Assessment (1995).
3. Dennis Pirages and Theresa DeGeest, Ecological Security 141 (2004). Studies report little on the impact of habitat loss on protozoa, nematodes, and other micro-organisms.
4. Jerry McBeath, Perspectives on Deforestation, 3 Global Envtl. Pol. 108 (2003). See also Alexander Wood, Pamela Stedman-Edwards & Johanna Mang, The Root Causes of Biodiversity Loss (2000).
5. Stuart Pimm et al., The Value of Everything, 387 Nature 231, 232 (1997).
6. A mega-diversity country is one having a very large number of species and extremely high levels of endemism. See Russell A. Mittermeier, ed., Megadiversity: Earth's Biologically Wealthiest Nations (1997).
7. James Harkness, Recent Trends in Forestry and Conservation of Biodiversity in China, China Quarterly 911 (1998).
8. State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), China's Biodiversity: A Country Study (2002).
9. John Mackinnon et al., A Biodiversity Review of China 21 (1996).
10. Id.
11. Lingzhi Chen, China's Biodiversity: Current Strategy And Its Conservation Strategy 15 (1993). It should be noted that estimates of species loss vary greatly. For example, Wilson suggests that a 20 percent loss in global biodiversity is possible by the year 2022, and he estimates current losses at 27,000 species per year. Quoted in David H. Backus, Life Lines, in Loss of Biodiversity 22 (Sharon S. Spray & Karen L. McGlothlin eds., 2003).
12. Wang Sung & Xie Yan, eds. (Biodiversity Working Group of China Council for International Cooperation on Environment And Development), China Species Red List, VOL. 1, (2004).
13. Interviews with officials of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing, June 25, 2004 and December 30, 2004. Also see Wang & Xie, id. at 9.
14. In fact, some 33 laws and regulations are mentioned as "domestic laws and regulations related to biodiversity in China." See: http://www.zhb.gov.cn/english/biodiv/domestic_law_en/domestic_law_en.htm (accessed 6/13/2004).
15. See Judith Shapiro's Mao's War Against Nature: Politics And The Environment In Revolutionary China (2001).
16. For a brief history of the protection and management of wildlife resources in China, see State Forestry Administration (SFA), Forty years of chinese forestry: 1949-1999 (in Chinese) 193-9 (1999).
17. For perspectives on conflicts in the implementation of this law, seeWu Ning, Indigenous Knowledge and Sustainable Approaches for the Maintenance of Biodiversity in Nomadic Society, 1997 Die Erde 67-80, and Emily T. Yeh, Tibetan Range Wars: Spatial Politics and Authority on the Grasslands of Amdo, 34 Dev. & Change 499-523 (2003).
18. Jeffrey A. Sayer and Changjin Sun, Impacts of Policy Reforms on Forest Environments and Biodiversity, in China's Forests: Global Lessons from Market Reforms 181 (William F. Hyde, Brian Belcher & Jintao Xu eds., 2003).
19. Id.
20. For example, nature reserves in Tibet comprise 26 percent of the land. See Wu Ning et al., eds., Tibet's Bioiversity: Conservation And Management 9 (2000).
21. Xie Yan, Wang Sung & Peter Schei, eds., (2004). Also see Protected Area Task Force (PATF) Report to CCICED 2004: Evaluation on and Policy Recommendations to the Protected Area System of China, Draft, April 2004.
22. For a systematic review of China's protected areas, see Xie Yan, Review of China's Natural Conservation Area Management System, in China Environment And Development Review (in Chinese) 273-95 (Zheng Yisheng & Wang Shihwen eds., 2004).
23. Xie, Wang & Schei, supra note 22, at 283.
24. CITES operates by requiring signatory parties to regulate international trade in species listed in its appendices. Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction by international trade. These species are strictly regulated and are not allowed to be commercially traded internationally. Appendix II includes all species which may become extinct if their trade is not regulated. To engage in trade for an Appendix II species, a CITES permit is required. Species may be added or deleted from these two restrictive appendices only by a two-thirds majority vote at a Conference of Parties (COP) of CITES.
25. See, for example, reports from Traffic International on illegal trade: J.A. Mills, Simba Chan & Akiko Ishinara, The Bear Facts: The East Asian Market for Bear Gall Bladder (1995)
26. J.A. Mills, Rhinoceros Horn and Tiger Bone in China: An Investigation of Trade since the 1993 Ban, (1997)
27. Kristin Nowell, Far from a Cure: The Tiger Trade Revisited (2000).
28. Also see Rosalind Reeve, Policing International Trade in Endagered Species: The Cities Treaty And Compliance 191 ff. (2002).
29. For example, Article 8 calls for countries to establish representative systems of protected areas; Article 7 requires member countries to monitor biodiversity and conservation activities; and Article 17 obliges countries to share such information globally.
30. See, for example, National Environmental Protection Administration of China, China's National Report on Implementation of the Convention On Biologicaldiversity (1998)
31. State Environmental Protection Administration, China's Second National Report on Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2001).
32. Elizabeth Economy, The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge To China's Future 263 (2004).
33. Interview with official of the State Oceans Administration, January 1, 2005, Beijing.
34. This is Elizabeth Economy's estimate; supra note 28, at 183.
35. Interview with CAS director and Biological Diversity Committee member, Beijing, July 2, 2004.
36. Quoted in Economy, supra note 28, at 189.
37. See: http://www.zhb.gov.cn/english/biodiv/state_imp_en/bdm_en.htm (accessed 6/13/2004).
38. The Chinese Association of Zoological Gardens, affiliated with MOC, and the China Wildlife Conservation Association, affiliated with SFA. Personal communication with SFA official, March 30, 2005, and interviews with GONGO officers, Beijing, January 7, 2005.
39. Interview with SFA official, Beijing, July 5, 2004.
40. See, for example, Biodiversity Working Group, China Council For International Cooperation on Environment And Development, Fourth Report (2000).
41. Jim Yardley, China's Premier Orders Halt to a Dam Project Threatening a Lost Eden, NEW YORK TIMES, April 9, 2004.
42. Jonathan Schwartz estimated that only 40 ENGOs were operating in his analysis Environmental NGOs in China: Roles and Limits, 77 Pac. Aff. 28, 36 (2004). This corresponds with the authors' survey in spring 2004, which identified about 36 viable ENGOs.
43. For a view of a successful grassroots group, the Upper Yangtze Organization, see J. Marc Foggin, Highland Encounters, in Innovative Communities Initiatives (United Nations University, 2003).
44. Interview with director of Wetlands International, Beijing, June 22, 2004.
45. Interview with Greenpeace campaign director, Beijing, June 23, 2004.
46. Interview with director of Friends of Nature, Beijing, June 23, 2004.
47. Interview with director of IFAW, Beijing, June 30, 2004.
48. See WWF, 01-03 WWF China Programme Report (2003).
49. Interview with communications officer, WWF, Beijing, July 1, 2004.
50. Interview with coordinators, Desert Control Volunteers Network, Beijing, July 4, 2004.
51. Interview with ENGO representative, Beijing, June 15, 2004.
52. Interview with SFA official, Beijing, May 27, 2004; and personal communication, March 30, 2005.
53. Interview with ENGO representative, Beijing, June 11, 2004.
54. Interview with SFA official, Beijing, May 10, 2004.
55. Interview with SFA official, Beijing, May 17, 2004.
56. Xie, Wang & Schei, supra note 22, at 285.
57. Xie Yan points out that "By 1999, facility construction for national and provincial NRs in Yunnan added up to about 58 million RMB. Personnel costs of provincial NRs are usually included in the provincial government financial budget. Lower level NRs usually only get very small fund support from local governments." In Xie, Wang, and Schei, supra note 22, at 328.
58. Harkness, supra note 8, at 921.
59. See Peter Schei, Wang Sung & Xie Yan, Complers, Conserving China's Biodiversity (II), 1997-2001 (2001) at 10-11.
60. Interview with forestry official, Beijing, July 5, 2004.
61. For a sensitive appraisal of western criticism of wildlife conservation in China, see Richard Harris, Approaches to Conserving Vulnerable Wildlife in China, 5 Environmental Values 303-34 (1996).
62. Harkness, supra note 8, at 929.
63. Interview with SEPA official, Beijing, May 30, 2004.
64. "Han" is a cultural term, dating from the Han Dynasty. Originally it was used to distinguish Chinese from the "barbarians"-Mongols and Manchus in the north, Tibetans in the west, and tribes such as the Yo and Miao of the southwest. Approximately 93 percent of the Chinese population is composed of the Han.
65. Richard Harris, Introduction: Perspectives on Wildlife Conservation in China and Taiwan, 1995-96 Chinese Environment & Development 3, 10.
66. Interview with policy analyst, Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences (CASS), Beijing, May 26, 2005.
67. The Nature Conservancy (TNC), China Program Report (2004).
68. Interview with TNC staff director, Kunming, May 27, 2005.
69. Mike Seymour, Partnerships to Support Sustainable Development and Conservation: Tthe West-East Pipeline Project, China, 18 Consevation Bio. 613, 614 (2004).
70. Shell Petrochemicals Company Ltd., The CSPC NANHAI Petrochemicals Project 11 (2005), and interview with Shell official, Beijing, 22 May 2005.
71. For a preliminary analysis of the EIA, see Squire, Sanders & Dempsey LLP, China Adopts Law on Environmental Impact Assessment, in China Update (2003).
72. Interview with member, CAS, Beijing, 19 May 2005.
73. Interview with policy analyst, CASS, Beijing, 25 May 2005.
74. For example, Warren Buffett recently gave China $50 million for continued panda preservation work. See China Daily News, April 24, 2004, at 2.
75. Recent reports point to the decline in critical habitat available to the giant pandas, as a consequence of growing human populations and encroaching commercial activities. Jianguo Liu et al. reviewed habitat extent over the 30 years of the establishment of the "flagship" protected area for the panda in Sichuan Province and found an increase in habitat loss and fragmentation. See Ecological Degradation in Protected Areas: The Case of Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas, 292 Sci. 98 (2001).
76. See also Colby Loucks, et al., Giant Pandas in a Changing Landscape, 294 SCI. 1465 (2001),
77. Environment News Service, Endangered Pandas not Safe in Chinese Nature Reserve (2001); accessed at http://forests.org/archive/asia/enpannot.htm.