Governance of Biodiversity Conservation in China And Taiwan

● conserve populations of animal and plant species in natural environ-

ments that allow for their continued natural selection and evolution;

● protect important staging areas for migratory species;

● protect local cultural links with nature;

● provide sites for the development of eco-tourism and other economic

opportunities;

● provide sites for people to experience the aesthetic and therapeutic

values of wilderness;

● protect sources of potentially valuable genetic resources; and

● provide opportunities for public education and awareness, and living

laboratories for continued biological exploration and study.^3

China’s system of protected areas evolved in four stages. In the earliest stage
(from 1956–66), the State established a small number of reserves, with
the first, Dinghushan Nature Reserve, founded in Guangdong Province in

1956. Five scientists proposed this means of conserving biological diversity
      during the third plenary session of the First People’s Congress. Their motion
      read:

‘It is an urgent need to establish a number of nature reserves in each of the provinces

and autonomous regions to preserve natural landscapes for the country. The nature

reserves will not only function as basic sites for scientific researches, but also create

favorable conditions for the conservation, propagation and extended use of the very

abundant animal and plant species. In the meanwhile, they play an active role in the

awareness activities of patriotism.’^4

Although the State Council did not issue regulations for the management of
protected areas, the Ministry of Forestry proposed targets, methods, and areas
for delimitation of reserves. By 1965, 19 protected areas had been organized.^5
In the second stage of evolution (1966–78), political conditions delayed the
expansion of protected areas. The Cultural Revolution was especially
destructive, as the decline of effective governmental control led to the hunting
of wild animals, felling of timber, and other appropriation of the resources in
existing nature reserves. One hopeful occurrence during this period, yet
without an immediate effect, was the formation of provisional regulations on
nature reserves. These were discussed at China’s first national environmental
conference in 1973.^6 By the end of 1978, only 34 nature reserves had been
formed.
The third stage (1979 to about 1995) was a period of rapid expansion in
number of protected areas. At the onset of China’s economic reform policies
and opening up to the world, the State Council and National People’s Congress
laid the legislative foundation for biodiversity protection (discussed earlier in
Chapter 4), including the passing of the Forest Law in 1985 and the Wild

Protected areas and biodiversity conservation 101