Final Report - Asian Development Bank

32
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
c. Environmental Protection Department
125. Shaanxi Government has taken action to curb the ecological deterioration in the Qinling 28 .
Many heavy polluters in Shaanxi have been shut down; tourism activities that adversely affected
natural environments have in some cases been stopped; and real estate development is banned at
the foot of the mountains.
126. However, with the economic development and intensified human activities in the past
decades, the Qinling has suffered ecological degradation. The rate of forest coverage declined from
64 percent 50 years ago to 46 percent in 2002. While nature tourism is developing, restaurants and
hostels lack facilities for waste treatment and this degrades the natural environment. Waste water and
solid waste discharged from enterprises and residences have polluted the Feng, Ba and Hei Rivers
and their 17 tributaries in the Qinling mountains. The Hei River is located at the west boundary of the
proposed Project Area.
127. In March 2001, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) designated the
Qinling one of the 10 national pilot Ecological Functional Conservation Areas (EFCAs). Under this
program governments at various levels in the Qinling were required to restore degraded environments.
Shaanxi provincial government started a special anti-pollution project along the north foot of the
Qinling Mountains, where ecosystems are most seriously degraded and pollution is the most difficult to
control. Shaanxi Environmental Protection Department notes that in Xi'an alone, 407 enterprises are
targeted under the program.
128. Ecological rehabilitation of the Qinling is a long-term project. Total government investment is
projected at CNY24.5 billion ($3 billion) by 2015. The goal is to restore landscapes and ecosystems of
the Qinling. He Fali, Director of SEPD and chief of the Qinling ecological restoration project, notes
that his department is determined to make Qinling clean again and leave future generations a "green
heritage."
i. Ecological Function Zoning
129. SEPA is cooperating with various agencies to develop a program for National Ecological
Function Zoning. The purposes are to define ecological functions of various regions based on natural
or ecological science; identify key regions whose protection is needed to ensure biodiversity
conservation in China; and guide rational development and conservation of resources. Seven types of
ecological function areas have been classified based on their dominant ecological functions:
(i) water source protected area;
(ii) soil conservation area;
(iii) wind sheltering and sand fixing area;
(iv) biodiversity conservation area;
(v) flood control area;
(vi) agriculture development area; and
(vii) urban construction area.
ii. Ecological Function Conservation Areas
130. SEPA, in cooperation with other agencies, is developing a Plan for the Conservation of
National Ecological Function Conservation Areas covering the period 2006-2020 29 . The establishment
of national EFCAs is a new measure in China to sustainably manage landscape-scale ecosystems by
protecting the primary ecological functions. Although EFCAs take economic growth into consideration,
they can restrict development in the interest of nature conservation. Using EFCAs, SEPA plans to
reduce the pressure of human activities on ecosystems and prevent degradation of ecological
functions caused by inappropriate development and construction projects. SEPA plans to achieve this
28
Zhang Tingting. 2004. Great Efforts Made to Restore Eco-environment of Qinling. The Consulate General of
the People’s Republic of China in Canada, http://www.chinaembassycanada.org. 7 May 2004.
29
China�s Ecological Function Conservation Zones. China Science and Technology Newsletter 254. Ministry of
Science and Technology, China, 30 March 2001.