Final Report - Asian Development Bank

42
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
164. The Nature Reserves Management component of the Sustainable Use of Forests project
focused on three locations, two in Hainan Province and one on the Sichuan-Gansu boundary area.
Hainan activities are not reviewed here. The Gansu-Sichuan project site was at Baishuijiang and
Tangjiahe NNRs, an area of 2,537 km 2 . These are priority reserves for giant panda conservation and
they support viable populations of Giant Panda and Sichuan Golden Monkey, Clouded Leopard,
Golden Takin, Temminck's Tragopan and Blue-eared Pheasant. Main threats are hunting, NTFP
harvesting, fuelwood collection and fire. Key interventions are (1) Participatory NR Planning and
Management: Nature reserve management plan development, preparation of ecological baseline
maps, improvement of field level management systems, provision of equipment and a small amount of
civil works, and research; (2) Community-based nature conservation, including co-management,
conservation education and public awareness, energy conservation, delivery of sustainable
technologies, and demonstration of wildlife management systems to reduce crop depredation; (3)
training and capacity building, including in-service training, building local capacity for training delivery
and institutional capacity building; (4) management, monitoring and evaluation, including project
management training, regular patrolling and periodic sampling as well as policy studies.
165. Key recommendations for World Bank-financed natural forest management projects were
listed as:
(i) Support modernization and implementation of more appropriate legislation, regulation,
and resource rights;
(ii) Support alternative resource control systems, such as deconcentration,
decentralization, and co-management with government agencies, local communities,
the private sector, NGOs, and others;
(iii) Closely coordinate technical training with the timing and needs of institutional change
and development for locally responsible resource management agencies;
(iv) Give priority to effective policy analysis and development, since policy and market
failures have been more serious than technical problems of forest management,
silviculture, and conservation;
(v) Support investments in boundary demarcation, resource assessment and inventories
and growth and yield studies; and
(vi) Strengthen systems for monitoring resource management and audit of institutional
performance.
166. Two key WBG recommendations for the biodiversity portion of the China forestry program
were to: (i) continue to support commercial plantation development to reduce pressure on natural
forests and expand domestic wood supply while generating environmental benefits; and (ii) expand
the GEF program because China's global biodiversity resources warrant a larger share of international
support than is presently received.
D. Threats analysis
167. General threats to biodiversity in the Qinling were identified in 1998 as 43 : (i) intensive
commercial timber harvesting near the nature reserves; (ii) agricultural encroachment; (iii) illegal taking
of natural resources; (iv) fragmentation by construction of national highways and reduced potential for
gene exchange; (v) unregulated development of tourism.
168. Commercial logging (threat number 1), was addressed in 1998 by the Natural Forest
Protection Program 44 , which banned logging in natural forests nationwide. While this stopped
commercial logging (except in plantations), it did not regulate household use of timber for construction,
cooking, and/or heating. Household use of timber remains a threat to NRs nationwide because
villagers live either within or near all reserves. Household timber harvest threatens habitats at
43 Zhang Jingliang, Li Huanfang , Zhang Mingxia , Hou Lingyu. 1998. Some of the main problems of the Qingling
Nature Reserves and managing strategies. Chinese Biodiversity 6(4):312-315.
44 Xu Jintao, E. Katsigris and T. A. White. 2001. Implementing the Natural Forest Protection Program and the
Sloping Land Conversion Program: Lessons and Policy Recommendations. CCICED Task Force on Forests
and Grasslands. China Forestry Publishing House, Beijing, 98p.