Final Report - Asian Development Bank

26
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
Other
3%
Agriculture
1%
Water
1%
Land
0%
Environment
8%
Forest
87%
Figure 5: Shaanxi nature reserve administration expressed as land area by agency
iv. Protected Areas in the Project Area and Qinling Mountains
103. The three types of protected areas that relate to the Project Area and the Qinling are nature
reserves (NRs), forest parks (FPs), and ecological function conservation areas (EFCAs). The Qinling
Mountains support 27 nature reserves and one EFCA. All but two of the nature reserves are
administered by the forest sector and 98% of the protected land area is administered by Forestry.
Water Resources Bureaus manage the remaining two nature reserves that account for 2% of the
protected land area.
104. Qinling nature reserves cover 557,298 ha or nearly 10% of the 5.05 million ha total area of
the Qinling mountain area in Shaanxi Province (Table 12). New reserves have been designated in the
Qinling since 1965 (Figure 6). The declining trend in gazettal of new reserve area reflects the
increasing difficulty of establishing reserves in a human-dominated landscape. The cumulative total
area has progressively increased as new reserves have been designated (Figure 7).
Area (ha
200,000
180,000
160,000
140,000
120,000
100,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
0
1965-93 2001-2
Year interval
2006-10
Panda Non-panda
Figure 6: New protected area in the Qinling mountains since 1965 by reserve type*
* Panda reserves are established to protect many species, but Giant Panda is a top priority.
Non-panda reserves are established in other ecosystems for other species such as wetland
habitats for the Chinese Giant Salamander.