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CHINA -
NATURE |
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The scale of China's environmental
problems makes an appropriate partner
for the breadth of its wildlife and
natural beauty. It ranks among the
most well-endowed countries on earth,
and its list of big animals includes
tigers, pandas, elephants and cranes.
Yet the country's environmental
importance goes far beyond these
well-known species, with a massive
range of geography and habitats
resulting in an extraordinary
diversity of plant and animal life.
The world's third largest country,
China rises from sea level in the east
to the peak of Mount Everest on the
border with Nepal. The south shares
tropical rainforests with Laos,
Vietnam and Burma, while the Da
Hinggan Mountains in Inner Mongolia
have tundra-type vegetation on top of
permafrost. China is also home to East
Asia's most important wetlands and
Asia's longest river and is the source
of two rivers of inestimable
importance to hundreds of millions of
people in South and Southeast Asia -
the Ganges and the Mekong.
Arrayed against this natural beauty
and biological importance are equally
dramatic problems . To begin
with, China's 1.2 billion souls
account for a fifth of the world's population
, but the nation encompasses less than
one tenth of the world's arable land.
Furthermore, almost the entire
population lives in the well-watered
eastern half of the country, where
virtually every centimetre of farmland
has been developed. Indeed, China has
very little land that has not been
altered in some way by man. Any
attempts at sustainable development
are complicated by the sheer size of
the population relative to available
resources; forests and wetlands,
grasslands and agricultural fields are
stretched beyond the limits of
sustainable production. Dramatic
growth in the economy and the
continuing need to raise living
standards for some of Asia's poorest
people means that urban areas face a
similar crisis: coal dust, untreated
factory emissions, vehicle exhaust and
wind-blown desert sand make Chinese
cities some of the most polluted on
Earth; more than thirty percent of the
nation's rivers are polluted and
virtually all water in urban areas is
heavily contaminated.
China's development has a
direct impact both on Asia and the
rest of the world. Plentiful coal
resources make it a cheap fuel for
meeting ever-growing power
requirements, but is set to create one
of the highest levels of greenhouse
gas emissions for any nation, and has
already caused substantial acid rain
fallout downwind on South Korea. The wildlife
of neighbouring countries has also
been affected by China's development,
with populations often heavily
exploited to supply the Chinese
market. For example, tiger bones
from India, Russia and Southeast Asia
were sold legally as Chinese medicine
until world pressure encouraged the
government to outlaw the practice in
December 1994. Fish, turtles, and
sharks' fins however, are still
legally imported in huge quantities
from Vietnam, Indonesia and the
Philippines.
Daniel A.
Viederman
Forests
China contains a variety of forest
types . Both the northeast and
northwest reaches contain mountains
and cold coniferous forests ,
supporting animal species which
include moose and Asiatic black bear,
along with 120 types of of...
read
more >>
Grasslands and deserts
Together grasslands and deserts make
up half of China's total land area.
The immense and productive grasslands
are largely concentrated in Inner
Mongolia, Ningxia Autonomous Region,
parts of Qinghai and Tibet. The
natural wildlife they support...
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more >>
Freshwater ecosystems
Freshwater ecosystems are of massive
importance to China, and a huge
percentage of the population is
directly dependent on wetlands -
marshes, rivers, and lakes - for
economic production, flood control
and, somewhat obviously, drinking...
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more >>
Saltwater lakes and coastal
wetlands
About half of China's lakes are saline
and are important breeding grounds for
waterfowl . Most are concentrated in
northwest China on the inland drainage
systems of the North Tibetan Plain and
in the Zaidan basin. The largest is...
read
more >>
Threats
As any traveller to China would
confirm, environmental
conservation enjoys a low
priority in a country rushing to
throw off years of economic
stagnation by uncontrolled
development. Yet when habitats
vanish, the species they support
become extinct too. Currently,
China's endangered flora and
fauna includes the familiar,
endemic and scarce giant panda; the
South China tiger; Yangzi river
dolphin; crested ibis; and a host of
other plants and animals. Of the
above animals, the giant panda is
most populous with approximately a
thousand individuals left in the
wild, while the entire known
population of crested ibis is
perhaps 45, and Yangzi dolphins
number less than 20. Other
endangered animals include the snow
leopard, which depends on western
China for over half its range; the
Asian elephant, a resident of
Xishuangbanna near Laos and Vietnam;
the golden monkey; the Yangzi
alligator; and migratory species
such as the red-crowned crane and
black-necked crane.
Wildlife is threatened in China
for a vast array of reasons, but
most are an outgrowth of human
economic activities. Intensive
cultivation of land for food
production has led to diminishing
areas of wildlands and diminishing
habitat for wildlife, just as
reclamation of wetlands for
agriculture, and construction of
power stations and water conservancy
have diminished the area of
freshwater ecosystems. Demand has
outstripped growth in supply for
virtually all natural resources
, including timber, animal products
and wild plants. Pollution ,
a consequence primarily of the
massive economic growth of the
current reform period, has damaged
habitats and diminished the carrying
capacity of water resources. Wildlife
has diminished because it is not
considered a productive use of land,
especially when compared with
agriculture, energy generation,
industrial development and waste
disposal.
Conservation
Under the circumstances conservation
is extremely difficult, though there
has been progress made over recent
years. In numbers and area covered,
China's nature reserves have
expanded with great speed. From the
establishment of Dinghushan Nature
Reserve in Guangdong Province in
1956 until 1978 only 34 reserves
were created, but since then the
numbers have grown exponentially. At
present there are over seven hundred
nature reserves in the country
covering almost six percent of the
nation's territory. The Ministry of
Forestry is responsible for over
five hundred of these, with others
being under the National
Environmental Protection Agency, the
Ministry of Agriculture and the
State Oceanic Administration.
These agencies have collaborated
with a variety of external
organizations over the past
sixteen years, beginning in 1980
with the joint World Wide Fund for
Nature (WWF) and the Ministry of
Forestry giant panda conservation
programme. Since then, the Wildlife
Conservation Society, International
Crane Foundation and Wetlands
International have also supported
conservation activities, while the
Ford Foundation addresses the
interaction of rural development and
conservation. UNESCO counts ten
Chinese reserves among its
international network, with the
Chinese MAB Committee listing a
further ninety as part of their
domestic projects. A variety of
international funding agencies
provide technical and financial
assistance to China for
conservation, including the World
Bank, the United Nations Development
Programme, and a number of bilateral
donors.
While the government has
shown interest and growing
commitment to conservation in recent
years, the most encouraging
initiatives are those that have
taken place in the informal sector
among concerned citizens .
The national campaign to save the
Yunnan snub-nosed monkey, was the
first of its kind in China, and
several "non-governmental
organizations" now exist.
Though few would count as pressure
groups in the Western sense, they
indicate the growing space for
public debate over the environment. Environmental
television and radio programmes
abound on China's airwaves, further
fuelling conservation awareness.
Most significantly, younger,
technically trained specialists are
taking over responsibility for
official conservation programmes,
and, while often subordinate to the
anachronistic policies of superior
political appointees, this new
generation is developing influence
in key areas around the country.
Though the pressures that have
led to the degradation of China's
environment and wildlife have, if
anything, increased in recent times,
the strength of China's
conservationists has grown as well.
Conservation is a process, and it is
difficult to imagine a day when wild
resources in China are no longer
threatened by a combination of
necessity and the desires of its
population. There is reason to
believe, however, that the increased
awareness and commitment of China's
citizens and the increased ability
of its officials will gradually
improve the balance.
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