Governance of Biodiversity Conservation in China And Taiwan

‘Many farmers have extended the lands that they cultivate beyond their certified

limits, but have enjoyed such tenure unhindered for many years. For example, a

large part of the Menglun Nature Reserve (part of the well-known Xishuangbanna

National Nature Reserve in Yunnan) has been abandoned by the Nature Reserve

Management in the face of armed demonstrations by villagers.’^23

The unsettled ownership status of many rural lands compounds this problem.
Although all land in China is owned by the state, only 60 percent or so of the
nature and forest reserves are on land over which state agencies have clear
control. The remainder are controlled by collectives (jiti), operating under
the ‘responsibility system’, initiated at the onset of economic reforms. For
example, Harkness notes:

‘When the collective forest lands of Yuhu village were incorporated into the

Yulongxueshan Nature Reserve in northwest Yunnan ... farmers responded by

cutting down trees they had previously managed on a sustainable basis.’^24

These cases express problems resulting from the lack of an integrated law for
the PAs, which is nested within an overall land-use and development
framework.^25
Second, there are problems of gaps in the coverage of endangered and
rare species and ecosystems, some of which have already been mentioned.
The PATF used a Geographic Information System (GIS) based analysis to
identify gaps in PA coverage. It plotted boundaries of all nature reserves and
then overlaid this matrix with a classification of the 124 recognized
biogeographical units and the distribution of all known vertebrate species.
This revealed the following problems in coverage:

● Low nature reserve coverage in high human density regions;

● under coverage of some areas, for example lowland stream areas;

● about 48 species are not covered by any nature reserve;

● inadequate coverage of some of the most important biogeographic units;

lack of coverage of others;

● marine wildlife has not been well covered by nature reserves.^26

Thus, the current PA system does not fully incorporate China’s endangered
and rare species and its ecosystem functions.
Third, the existing system of management zones – core, buffer, and
experimental – is rigid and inflexible. In the core area, no individuals, groups,
or institutions are permitted entry except upon approval. Indigenous
inhabitants in core areas are supposed to be relocated. Only scientific research
is permitted in the buffer zone. In the experimental area, a range of uses is
permitted: scientific experimentation, educational activities, survey work,
tourism, and domestication and reproduction of rare and endangered wildlife.^27

108 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan