Final Report - Asian Development Bank

TA 4721-PRC: Preparing the Shaanxi-Qinling Mountains Integrated Ecosystem Management Project
Final Report Appendix 5
A. Introduction
BIODIVERSITY OF THE QINLING MOUNTAINS
1. Increasing population pressures, cultural traditions, and economic development have
degraded China's biological resources. The combination of a large population (over 1.3 billion people
with an annual growth rate of 0.59 percent or nearly 8 million people) and limited land and water
resources (only ten percent of the land area is arable and freshwater per capita is one fourth the world
average) has caused extensive loss of habitats for housing, infrastructure, farming, logging, fuelwood
collection, and livestock grazing. As a result, the IUCN World Conservation Union Red List of globally
threatened species in China includes 804 species in total, 442 plants, and 362 animals. China’s own
Red Data Book of threatened species includes a larger total.
2. The Agriculture Ministry reports that 30 percent of the Yellow River’s 150 fish species are
extinct. The most recent documented extinction of a vertebrate in China was the Baiji or Yangzi River
Dolphin in 2006. No verified sighting of a free-ranging South China Tiger has been reported since the
early 1990s: Some scientists believe the sub-species is extinct outside of zoos. China’s Snub-nosed
Monkeys have suffered local extinctions over the last 400 years, leaving the remaining four species in
small, isolated populations and vulnerable to extinction. China’s ultimate flagship species, Giant
Panda, was nearly lost before conservation efforts brought the global population back to over 1,500
animals.
3. In spite of the extinctions and the long lists of threatened species, Chinese Academy of
Sciences estimates that 80 percent of China’s plant and animal biodiversity remains unknown. Many
of the extinctions of fish species in China’s woodlands and wetlands will never be documented
because they occurred before scientists could name and describe the species that were lost. More
important, it is not possible to protect or recover many species whose survival is threatened by human
activities because we have not yet learned that these species exist, where and how they live, and how
they are threatened.
4. In terms of biodiversity conservation, modern China presents a mosaic of apparent
contradictions. Unprecedented rates of extinction and rapidly escalating human-caused threats to
wildlife are occurring at a time when China’s nature reserve systems is growing rapidly toward a 2050
goal of 2,000 protected areas. China’s policy, legal, and regulatory framework for nature conservation
is among the world’s strongest, and is continually improving (Annex 1). There is little question that
China’s growing network of protected areas combined with its policy and legal framework could
reverse most of the deteriorating trends in biodiversity if management, implementation and
enforcement were carried out as written, and supported by updates to adapt to changing situations
(such as the new nature reserve law now being drafted). In support of this contention, several key
components of the biodiversity conservation policy and legal framework are listed in the paragraphs
below.
5. The Forest Law (revised in 1986), specifies goals of maintaining an average of 30 percent
forest cover over the entire country, including 40 percent in mountainous areas, and prohibits logging
in protected areas. It also imposes strong penalties for illegal felling of trees and attempts to establish
closer links between harvesting and reforestation. The Environmental Protection Law of 1989
promotes rational use of natural resources and facilitates the development of a comprehensive system
of nature reserves. The Wildlife Conservation Law of 1989 includes categories of protection for
endangered and threatened wildlife.
6. China is increasingly active in international nature conservation efforts. China participates in
the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program, and ratified the Ramsar Convention in 1992 and the
Biodiversity Convention in 1993. China acceded to CITES, the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna, in 1994.
7. National environmental strategies and actions plans have also been prepared as required by
China’s accedence to international conventions. A national nature conservation strategy was
produced in 1987 that provided a general overview of conservation status and trends. A Biodiversity
Conservation Action Plan was completed in 1993 with assistance from the Global Environment Facility
(GEF) and IDA, and was approved by the State Council, which establishes national priorities in
biodiversity. A National Environment Conservation Action Plan was approved by the State Council.
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