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John R. Fellowes, kfjrf@kfbg.org
(With thanks to Richard Corlett, Charlotte Hicks and Michael Lau)
The aspirational aim under the Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD) to significantly reduce the rate
of biodiversity loss by 20101 was intended to focus thought
on how to measure loss, and action on how to reduce
it. Most conservationists and CBD Parties were well
aware that slowing the loss, in the face of fast economic
development and population growth, was not going to be
possible so soon. To begin with, even defining the baseline
rate of loss was difficult. Biodiversity is a poorly understood
concept, in part because it is so complex, incorporating
many dimensions - the outright loss of ecosystems and
species are extreme cases of decline. Nailing it down to
a series of solid, measurable targets was quite a challenge.
Eventually, though, the targets were defined and agreed
by the Parties (see page 35-36).2 Together, they provide
a framework for charting progress toward getting
biodiversity loss under control.
So how are we doing in South China? For the official
report at the national level, the reader is referred to the
latest National Report on CBD Implementation.3 The
following, unofficial evaluation of progress since the
millennium is based on the spirit of the 2010 Target. Scores
in each focal area, based on a maximum of 10 points per
target, are entirely subjective. Argument is welcome!
Protecting the components of biodiversity
Various "components of biodiversity" are recognised as
needing attention in the CBD targets: areas representing
ecological regions; areas of particular importance to
biodiversity; declining populations of selected taxa;
extinction risk of threatened taxa; genetic diversity of
"valuable" species; and local knowledge linked to these
useful species. While China's protected-areas system is
scheduled to expand to 16% of the country by 2010 under
the 2001 National Programme of Wildlife Conservation
and Nature Reserve Development,4 the coverage is very
uneven across ecological regions.5 A glance at a Google
map (even before this year's snow damage) shows that
far less than 10% of South China is covered in natural
vegetation - the target came too late for most of its
ecosystems, including Lowland Wet Evergreen Forest,
Tropical Semi-evergreen Forest and Temperate Coniferous
Forest.6 For some areas legal protection has increased in
recent years, exemplified by the 500 km2 nature reserve at
Yinggeling protecting much of central Hainan's upland
forest. Still, Hainan's coverage is only 7%, and Guangxi's 6%;
in Guangdong it will not be until 2020 that nature reserves
cover 10% of the land, and only 7% will be protected
by 2010.7 Southern China is now one of the highest-priority
areas globally for new protected-area investment.8,9
Within protected areas effectiveness of conservation
varies, with some surviving natural forests disturbed by
hunting, logging, collecting and harmful infrastructure,10,11
with a range of institutional constraints on improved
management,12 such that populations of mammals,
turtles, frogs, fishes and other taxa have continued to
decline. The responsible Government administrations
have been unable to agree on a new protected-areas
law, which might have helped. On the other hand there
has been overall improvement in technical capacity of
reserves, illegal shooting and trapping has been controlled
in many areas, and the more resilient species (such as
Wild Boar, Rhesus Monkey and Sambar) are increasing
locally; additional capacity-building initiatives are under
way. To date the criteria for evaluating biodiversity
importance of sites are unclear, with "national" factors
(e.g. number of state-protected species) arguably over-emphasised
relative to globally threatened elements.13
The Government recognises the need for a systematic
approach (see pp. 37-38), integrating the extensive but
scattered data from recent years, and this must incorporate
ecologists' insights. Knowledge of extinction risk has
improved through better Red List assessments of some
taxa (e.g. land vertebrates and gymnosperms), allowing
greatly improved national14 and global15 Red Lists for
some taxa. Reviews of other groups (e.g. dragonflies) will
be completed before 2010, providing baselines and actual
trends in some cases (see also pp. 43-46). As an indication,
for 58 threatened species in tropical and subtropical forest
biomes of China, a downward global population trend
is reported for 54 (93%).15 For many species threats are
better understood than before, but there are few examples
of threatened species that have improved their status in
the wild. Genetic diversity of "economic" species is
less neglected in China than that of others, but diversity
is still at risk from the spread of genetically modified
commercial varieties, albeit slowed by recent biosafety
regulations. Meanwhile understanding of the functional
components within disturbed natural ecosystems is very
patchy.16,17 In all, the components of biodiversity cannot
be said to be at all secure, but progress has certainly been
made. Score: 22/50
Promote sustainable use
Wildlife recovery is hailed in some
nature reserves but may be limited to resilient species
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To bring about "sustainable use" means several things:
to ensure products come from sustainable sources, and
conversely that production areas are managed in ways
consistent with biodiversity conservation; to reduce
consumption that is unsustainable or impacts upon
biodiversity; and to avoid endangering wildlife through
international trade. Like more uniformly-wealthy countries
China is very far from achieving sustainability, with massive
consumption and illegal trade in timber and wildlife,
endangering many groups of organism.18,19,20,21,22,23,24
Consumer certification such as that of the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) has been slow to penetrate,
and consumers' ethical awareness lags behind that in most
developed countries. By contrast, per capita Ecological
Footprint is currently far lower than in other developed
countries, but this is changing dramatically.25 A specific
example is palmoil in Southeast Asia - devastating to
forests26 - of which China is the top consumer.27 The
region's landscapes show the scars of unsustainable
agriculture and land use, with soil erosion, vegetation
diminished in diversity, accumulating plastic waste and
the intrusion of exotic plants for economic use and as
weeds. Ecological agriculture demonstration villages
have potential for an alternative, but need clear guidelines
to adapt ecological systems to local conditions. Most
rivers are fished unsustainably and interrupted by dams.
Meanwhile South China emits more greenhouse gases
than the vast majority of countries, and emissions are
rising dramatically; the region's own fragmented biota will
suffer as much as any from the resulting climate change.
There has been some reduction in wildlife trade due
to disease fears and occasional clampdowns, and some
new materials to help enforcement officers, but much
legal trade is unsustainable and much illegal trade has
gone underground; market monitoring and field surveys
suggest depletion of many wild populations in China and
overseas due to consumption in Guangdong, Guangxi and
Hainan.18 Improved coordination among conservation
organisations concerned with wildlife trade is overdue.
At the same time consumption overseas of products from
China often fails to stipulate environmental protection, and
China itself often fails to require it, such that ecological
degradation through pollution continues. The new
Master Plan (pp. 19-20) has its work cut out. In all South
China is a long way from sustainable use, and is in many
respects heading in the wrong direction. Score: 6/30
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