Final Report - Asian Development Bank

een a significant lack of research and development into the needs of wild or controlled release programs
through which the value of captive breeding could be exploited through the establishment of a secure wild
population. There needs to be significant field research into habitat availability and food sources to
ascertain what habitat management is necessary to achieve successful reintroductions.
(v) Diversity in Target Species 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. The big “four” species receive 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. Study of 11 indigenous plants should also 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.
43. The globally threatened amphibians include Chinese Giant Salamander (Critically
Endangered 12 ), a flagship species for mountain wetlands in China. While restoration of forests will
indirectly benefit Qinling wetland habitats of Chinese Giant Salamander, more direct intervention is
needed because of the pressure on Qinling rivers for gold mining and abstraction for transfer to other
basins. Great investments have been made in commercial rearing of Chinese Giant Salamander, but these
have not been matched by investments in field conservation. The 11 mammals include two species that
will not directly benefit from habitat protection for Giant Panda: Desert Cat (Vulnerable) and Asian Wild
Dog (Endangered). These species have different habitat needs and these will require dedicated study and
management projects.
(v) Captive Propagation. Conservation biology increasingly focuses on science-based management of
people, habitats, and ecosystems. One successful conservation project in Shaanxi Province is the
collaborative effort of SFD and WWF to conserve the Giant Panda by protecting and restoring its forest
habitats and movement corridors in the Qinling Mountains ecosystem. There is, however, a tendency to
approach conservation of wildlife in China from the perspective of captive propagation. Examples are
Giant Panda, Crested Ibis, species of sturgeon and other fishes, and two sub-species of tiger. While
successes have been achieved in captive breeding of some of these species, none of these programs has
yet led to significant conservation gains for wild populations. Giant Panda and Crested Ibis numbers are
increasing in the Qinling Mountains because of successful habitat management---not because of release of
captive bred animals. Fisheries biologists world-wide have concluded that release of captive-bred fish
from hatcheries can cause more problems than it solves. Russia has shown that habitat protection is the
key to tiger conservation and all efforts are made to avoid taking Siberian Tigers into captivity. The
captive rearing approach is taken world-wide only as a “last chance” strategy when numbers of a species
have declined to a level where extinction in the wild is certain. The Qinling eco-region does not need
more captive rearing and breeding programs to save threatened wildlife. Rather, as in the case of the
Giant Panda, habitat protection and restoration is the priority for future investment based on scientific
knowledge of the requirements of the species targeted for conservation.
iv) Proposed Project Area
44. The Project area comprises 458 km 2 (less than 1% of the Qinling Mountains) and is located on
the northern slope of the Qinling Mountains adjacent to Louguantai Township. It is located in Zhouzhi
County, 50km south and west of Xian with a travel time from Xian of less than one hour. The Project
area includes: (i) the Tianyu River and the Chiyu River Valleys, (ii) the hill and plain area to the north of
the Qinling Mountains, (iii) the existing Louguantai Historical and Cultural Area, (iv) a Hot Springs
12
Yet still harvested from the wild to build captive breeding programs for the local restaurant trade with apparent
impunity from law enforcement