- Conclusions
We conclude our study by summarizing the main points of the argument. We
then take a different slant by asking whether there are ‘Chinese characteristics’
to the governance of biodiversity conservation.
SUMMARY
In this volume we have explored the problems and prospects of biodiversity
loss and conservation in mainland China and Taiwan. The topic is an important
one because China is a mega-diversity country, and China and Taiwan together
are thought to possess 10–13 percent of the world’s known species. How both
states approach problems of biodiversity loss thus has global as well as
national repercussions.
The perspective of governance underlies our approach to the topic. Not only
have we treated political institutions and administrative agencies; we also have
paid attention to the actions of individuals, groups (especially environmental
non-governmental organizations (ENGOs)), and communities as they have
sought to influence policy and are in turn influenced by it. The methodology
we have used is explicitly comparative, and one of our objectives has been to
understand the impacts, if any, of the sharply different political and economic
systems of capitalist, democratic Taiwan and authoritarian China with its
socialist market economy.
China and Taiwan share the world’s oldest continuous civilization.
Traditional China produced a rich skein of interpretations about human
relationships with the environment, including anthropocentric, sentientist, and
ecocentric views. Although Confucianism and Legalism were the orthodoxy,
with the greatest impact on the behavior of leaders, Taoism, Buddhism, and
a host of animistic beliefs taught reverence for nature and even endowed
it with spiritual force. These latter belief systems did not put human values
first.
When most residents of China and Taiwan today speak about environmental
issues, they are more affected by recent history than by the Confucian past. In
China, Maoist revolutionary spirit did not die at the establishment of the
People’s Republic, but pulsed through the Great Leap Forward and Cultural
Revolution, both of which were enormously destructive to the environment.
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