Final Report - Asian Development Bank

26 Main Report
62. The proposed Southern Shaanxi Regional Strategy (11 th Five Year Plan For Shaanxi
Province 2006) proposes to protect natural resources in order to develop nature and ecotourism,
alternative livelihoods and off-farm employment opportunities. The Project seeks to develop
commercially successful businesses that will invest in conserving the resources throughout the
Project Area in the first instance and then increasingly within the Qinling Mountains. As such the
concept of ex-situ tourism development is simply a means for generating a more sustaining flow of
investment for the conservation of biodiversity. Similarly the Project will invest into the CDA to improve
livelihoods of local residents. The local residents will increasingly derive income from forest or forest
based products either directly or through adding value to forest and local products such as essential
oils, medicinal plants and the production of handicrafts.
63. ADB’s Country Partnership Strategy (2008–2010) provides support for poverty reduction
and investment that improves the quality of life for those on low incomes and assist the protection of
its natural resources and environmental assets especially those that have regional or even
international significance. ADB’s operations will support the 11 th FYP implementation with a focus on
improving equity and environmental sustainability. The ADB partnership program seeks to achieve
this through improving resource use efficiency, fostering sustainable cities and urban development,
enhance rural development through linking producers to markets and industry, and enabling private
sector development. The proposed Project supports ADB’s partnership strategy though support for
sustainable rural development based on linking rural livelihoods to sustainable natural resource
management and biodiversity conservation within a wider landscape model. The approach to tourism
will assist in the development of high value tourism that is pro-poor through linking each enterprise to
rural communities for goods and service opportunities and through the provision of a levy into an ecofund
for the financing of CDA conservation and conservation based livelihood development. Through
these linkages poor and often vulnerable rural residents will increase income levels and increasingly
derive income from either or both paid employment and forest resources.
64. External Assistance. Biodiversity has been well supported within the Qinling Mountains
since 1995 when the first World Bank - GEF protected area and nature reserves program was
implemented (see Appendix 2). The program sought to strengthen nature reserve management
capacity and to introduce new approaches to conservation management built on collaborative
management styles. This donor work was further developed through the continued support and
involvement of WWF in the Qinling Mountains where programs for strengthening nature reserves,
panda conservation and rural livelihood improvement and monitoring continue successfully.
65. Land degradation, especially through human activities that destroy natural habitats such as
land conversions, industrialization, poor management of water resources and deforestation, severely
endangers the PRC’s rich biodiversity. ADB’s Capacity Building to Combat Land Degradation
Project 14 , the first project under the PRC-GEF Partnership on Land degradation in Dryland
Ecosystems, is ongoing in six provinces/autonomous regions: Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia,
Qinghai, Shaanxi, and Xinjiang. In Ningxia, a multi-agency task force has prepared a provincial level
strategy and action plan for land degradation control through an Integrated Ecological Management
(IEM) approach.
66. The PRC has given particular attention to the Qinling Mountains rare and endangered
species. The most prominent example is the Qinling Panda Focal Project which is led by the World
Wildlife Federation (WWF). WWF has supported species management for Giant Panda, habitat
protection and restoration, capacity building programs, rural livelihood and ecotourism programs in the
Qinling Mountains with considerable success and influence. The Qinling Panda Focal Project
emphasizes cooperation with non-traditional conservation forces such as national and regional
government projects and economic development activities.
67. More specifically, the PRC has implemented a number of related initiatives over the past
decade with ADB and other international partners. Related programs and projects that will offer
valuable links and potential collaboration with this Project include the ongoing PRC-GEF Partnership
14 ADB. 2004. Technical Assistance to the People’s Republic of China for the Capacity Building to Combat Land
Degradation Project. Manila. Approved on 29 June 2004 for $13.8 million, of which $7.7 million was provided
by GEF as a grant. Supported by ADB. 2004. Technical Assistance to the People’s Republic of China for the
Support Implementation of Capacity Building to Combat Land Degradation Project. Manila, for $1.2 million.