Final Report - Asian Development Bank

36
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
iii. The Qinling EFCA and the ADB-GEF Project
137. The goal of the Project is recreation development that contributes to sustainable social
development and sustainable nature conservation including recovery of lost or degraded ecosystem
resources and functions. This objective is equivalent to that of the EFCA 12 . The only noteworthy
difference is that the EFCA includes economic activities other than recreation (e.g. transport,
manufacturing, mining, and farming). Thus the goals of the EFCA and those of the proposed Project
are essentially identical. Indeed, the proposed Project represents the ideal type of development in the
EFCA.
2. Poverty Alleviation
138. New anti-poverty measures are planned for southern Shaanxi farm communities 32 . The
governments of Shangluo, Ankang, and Hanzhong Prefectures (three southernmost prefectures in
Shaanxi Province) were working in 2006 on green projects to improve economic development. These
include production of more than 1,500 kinds of local products such as walnut, Chinese chestnut,
persimmon and edible fungus, to increase farmer incomes and enable forest conservation. Other
industries targeted for development include Chinese medicines, tea, wine, food and tourism. This
program targets protection of biodiversity and China's main water resource for the central line of the
South-North Water Diversion Project. Due to environmental degradation over the past 50 years,
around one fifth of the Shanglou Prefecture population (or 0.5 million of 2.5 million people) are
considered to lack adequate food and clothing. The green development projects are intended to aid
this sector of the community.
3. Non-Government Initiatives
a. World Wide Fund for Nature
139. In March 2002 the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched its Qinling Giant Panda
Project 33 . The purpose of the project is to protect the Giant Panda and its habitats in the Qinling
mountains. The Qinling panda population includes approximately 300 pandas that are geographically
and genetically isolated from other panda populations in Sichuan and Gansu Provinces. Development
pressure on panda habitats in the Qinling is expected to increase with implementation of the Western
China Development Program. Thus the urgent need for enhanced protection.
140. Similar to the ADB-GEF Project, the WWF Panda Project seeks balance between
conservation and development. WWF involves private sector investors to fund the development of
new industries, activities and livelihoods for villagers in an effort to reduce or eliminate human-caused
pressure on panda habitats. WWF’s Panda Project plans by 2012 to achieve a 10% increase in the
Qinling giant panda population and a 20% increase in the area of protected panda habitats. These
goals are to be met by “mobilizing non-conventional stakeholders to adopt and apply conservation and
sustainable use approaches in their policies, decision-making, investments and consumption
behavior”.
141. The WWF Panda Project has three modules:
(i) Habitat protection and creation of five ecological corridors for giant pandas in the
Qinling (see below);
(ii) Cooperative biodiversity conservation and tourism in the southern Taibaishan region
of Zhouzhi County; and
(iii) Sustainable community development within the entire giant panda range in the
Qinling.
32 Anon. 2006. Cities in Shaanxi Strive to Balance Environment, Development. China Daily, 16 May 2006.
33 This section adapted from WWF website http://www.wwfchina.org/english/sub_loca.php?loca=27&sub=90