Final Report - Asian Development Bank

50
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
bamboos that are preferred by the Qinling flagship species, Giant Panda, and would contribute directly
to continued recovery of Panda populations in the Qinling.
b. Monitoring and Adaptive Management – NFPP and SLCP
201. NFPP and SLCP have not been adequately monitored to determine their ecological or socioeconomic
effectiveness. Natural forests have not been studied after the logging ban of NFPP in 1998
to assess recovery rates or ecological aspects of forest and vegetation recovery. Use of timber by
villages in and around protected areas has not been assessed. Comparative analyses of remote
sensing data have not been undertaken to assess NFPP impacts on total forest cover.
202. SLCP was applied to 6,000-8,000 km 2 of the Qinling and the program continues through
2007. No monitoring has been undertaken to quantify effectiveness in terms of vegetation cover, tree
survival, or outcomes in terms of farm economics.
203. Monitoring of both programs would be useful to achieve the following:
(i) determine the extent of forest recovery following the NFPP logging ban of 1998;
(ii) identify sites of continued forest degradation and determine causal factors;
(iii) initiate remedial actions as needed to improve the ecological and socio-economic
performance of NFPP;
(iv) detailed monitoring of SLCP plots in the proposed Project Area to determine plot
condition, the species of trees planted, survival rates, and growth rates;
(v) detailed assessment of outcomes of SCLP in the Project Area for local farmers; and
(vi) initiate remedial actions as needed to improve the ecological and socio-economic
performance of SCLP.
c. Species Recovery
i. Crested Ibis
204. The captive populations of Crested Ibis have grown to unmanageable levels at the Yang
County (over 200 birds) and Zhouzhi County (over 220 birds) breeding centers. Maintenance of such
large numbers of captive birds of any species is ill advised, particularly in the era of SARS and avian
influenza. China’s increasing network of wetland nature reserves provides a wealth of potentially
suitable release sites for some of the captive birds. PRC is planning a release program as is IUCN-
SSC through its Stork, Ibis and Spoonbill Specialist Group. Japan is also developing a release
program at Sado Island based on recent successes in natural reproduction of captive birds (young
fledged from nests built and tended by captive adult birds). Nature reserves in Russia and the Koreas
have expressed interest to participate in a release program.
205. The technical gap appears to be assessment of the suitability of habitats for release of
Crested Ibis. Field work is needed to assess the suitability of habitats near the Zhouzhi facility for
release of captive Crested Ibis. The results should be contributions to a release program that could be
extended beyond the Project Area to the north slope of the Qinling as a whole.
ii. Non-“Big Four” Globally Threatened Species
206. Biodiversity inventories of Qinling protected areas are generally thorough except for
invertebrate taxa. Of the 38 globally threatened species in the Qinling, 34 species are non-migratory.
Four of these receive the most research and conservation attention: Giant Panda, Golden Takin,
Sichuan Golden Monkey, and Crested Ibis. The remaining 30 species have been little studied and are
seldom the target of conservation programs. These include 11 species of indigenous plants, six
species of wetland vertebrates (four amphibians and two reptiles), one upland bird and one wetland
bird, and eleven mammals.
207. Study of the 11 indigenous plants should be a priority for simultaneous species recovery and
ecosystem restoration. One plant species (Brown Moccasin Flower) is Critically Endangered, the most
threatened of IUCN Red List categories. The globally threatened amphibians include Chinese Giant
Salamander (Critically Endangered), a flagship species for mountain wetlands in China. While