Final Report - Asian Development Bank

74
TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 7
borne pollutant data, in Xi’an, none in the project. Additionally, ten mobile stations are operated by the
Shaanxi Center. The stations monitor the classic pollutants. There are ten automatic water monitoring
stations with five more to be built. Classic measurements of pollutants and stream flow are taken, and
on occasion testing for toxic chemicals. Ground and waste water are also monitored. Soil
contamination is also monitored. Monitoring results are reported bimonthly, annually and every 5
years. Collected data is stored and analyzed using SQL server data based system and the internet to
disperse information.
393. Monitoring for the QM must be coordinated with the Shaanxi and local monitoring Centers,
with the likely need for air and water monitoring stations within the Project Area. Qinling Mountain
Nature Reserves have good programs of biota monitoring in several units, which has been developed
with WWF. Initiated by WWF, the monitoring program began in 1999 in Foping, Laoxiancheng and
Niubeiliang Nature Reserves. This program monitored Giant Panda population and habitat, vegetation,
Panda droppings and breeding places. In 2005, with the SFD, monitoring was expanded to 19 NRs
and one Forest Farm. This monitoring work is collecting: Giant Panda breeding data from all QM
breeding sites and also field monitoring data. Field monitoring occurs twice year, April to May and
September to October. Socio-economic and Nature Reserve Management data is also collected and
evaluated once a year. Vegetation is monitored on a 5 year schedule. Three hundred nineteen animal
and eighty plant transects have been established and located precisely with GPS data system, which
is directly transferred to Forest Bureau by internet. Standards have been established for the
monitoring and are compiled in a useable hand book. Training is given to each of the approximately
200 monitors, who are Forest Bureau employees. Training hand books and field guides are made
available to the monitors. Training needs analysis is done prior to the training in order to tailor the
training to the needs, which vary according to the employee’s abilities and the level of the NR in which
they will work. Written exams and skill tests are given to test competence and awards are given for
good work, often a GPS. An expert team gives support to the monitors.
394. Data collection and monitoring is complemented by Patrols numbering more personnel than
the monitors. They also are given special monitoring training. WWF has also established a Qinling
Ambassador Program using volunteer students and others to work with communities educating
villagers on values of biodiversity and conservation, and collecting specific socio-economic data for a
5 year period, which should provide very valuable information.
395. Funding for this work comes from several sources. At present 60% is from WWF for training
and equipment, local partners (NRs) contribute staff and vehicles, and Shaanxi Forest Department
and SFA cover other costs. WWF’s percentage is being reduced.
396. All the Panda Reserves have GEF standard management plans. In the planning, WWF
adopted the GEF co-management concept. WWF role was to act as a facilitator, asking locals what
they want to do and if the proposal is environmentally friendly, helping them proceed through micro
credit or other means.
397. The Shaanxi WWF office is very willing to share all their information and work with this
Project, but ask and believe it is necessary that a formal cooperative agreement be entered into
between the Project and WWF’s Beijing office. Information sharing and other forms of cooperation
would be highly beneficial to the Project and the PPTA strongly recommends that a cooperative
agreement be formally arranged.
398. Forest Resource Management Division and the Shaanxi Forest Survey and Design Institute
of the SFD report that forest land is re-surveyed every 5 years. In Shaanxi there are 6440 permanent
0.08 ha plots on which tree and soil type data are collected. The plots are laid out in a grid and located
on remote sensing imagery, currently using Spot 5. The officials showed little interest in monitoring
non tree species of plants, but the survey could provide the basis for systematic flora monitoring in the
Qinling Mountains.
399. The Northwest Institute of Forest Inventory, Planning and Design, under the SFA also have a
system of forest plots, more limited in number than the above described Provincial survey, which are
examined every 5 years.
400. The PPTA recommends that a biota and land monitoring function be located within the
QNBG and that this share all data with the SFD. The PPTA does not support the investment into new