Final Report - Asian Development Bank

24
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
China’s accedence to the CBD in June 1993. The CBD obliged China to draft a national biodiversity
conservation strategy and China was one of the first countries in the world to do so. China's
Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan (BCAP) was promulgated on 13 June 1994. SEPD is
responsible for implementing the BCAP in Shaanxi.
99. Beneath the regional level of authority lies the city or prefecture level, which is represented in
the Project Area by the Government of Xi’an City.
ii. Legislation, Conventions, Treaties
100. A list of policies, laws, regulations, plans, and guidelines used to administer and manage
nature reserves and wetlands in China is shown in Appendix 1. China’s legal system is generally
adequate as a framework for protection of biological resources. However, as noted in China’s
biodiversity program for GEF, governance of biodiversity conservation has not been adequate to halt
losses of habitats and biodiversity. In addition to the legal framework within China there are numerous
international conventions, treaties and agreements to which China is a signatory and which are also
relevant to conservation (Appendix 1).
iii. Protected Areas in Shaanxi Province
101. Shaanxi Province has gazetted a total of 51 nature reserves (Figure 4, Appendix 2). The
total land area protected in these 51 reserves is 10,076 km 2 , or around 5% of the land area of Shaanxi
Province (195,800 km 2 ). Almost 90% of the protected land area is administered by the forest sector
(Figure 5) as are 38 of the 51 nature reserves (75%).
102. Two of Shaanxi’s seven national nature reserves (NNRs), Taibai Mountain and Foping, are
listed as international biosphere reserves by the UNESCO Man & the Biosphere Program. In 2003,
when Shaanxi had only five NNRs, coverage of the important biodiversity sites was considered
inadequate 24 .
24 Li Diqiang, Song Yangling and Ouyang Zhiyun. 2003. Research on the National Forestry Nature Reserve
System Plan. World Bank-GEF Forest Resources Development and Protection Project, Nature Reserves
Management Project. China Land Press, Beijing, in Chinese and English.