Governance of Biodiversity Conservation in China And Taiwan

The natural science establishment in both China and Taiwan has found ways
to influence state policy on biodiversity issues. Natural science disciplines are
organized into research institutes in both states. They are under the umbrella
of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in China and Academia Sinica in
Taiwan. Most of the recent research into biodiversity conservation has been
organized by these institutes, and they have played a large role in policy
development. This is noted in the formation of integrated task forces and
commissions on the subject of biodiversity. However, scientists in Taiwan
have taken far less advantage of their opportunities for influence. Review
committees in Taiwan’s environmental bureaucracies regularly invite natural
scientists to contribute views, and natural scientists contribute materially to the
engineering aspects of environmental disasters, but there is little evidence that
they possess a substantial influence on the policy-making process.
Social scientists in both China and Taiwan, on the other hand, have less
influence on policy formation and implementation. A veteran political analyst
gave these reasons for the difference in treatment of social and natural
scientists:

‘Chinese high officials in general respect natural scientists, but not social scientists.

The leaders believe that they know about politics and society, that they are already

experts. Also, there is some scientism. They are superstitious about science They

don’t really look at the overall system. They want progress; they want new

technology; they want business growth. They want rapid movement and for this

reason they appreciate technology. Our leaders’ background is in engineering, like

mine. They study building things, so that’s why science is important to them.’^4

Partnerships with INGOs

As noted in Chapter 7, the portfolio of ENGOs in China is considerably
different from that in Taiwan. China’s ENGOs contribute to the spread of
environmental knowledge and force the state to adopt at least some pro-
environment policies. In contrast to China, Taiwan’s ENGOs have the freedom
to organize grassroots support, whereby they gain bargaining leverage to
check some state policies. However, the influence of NGOs in China’s
biodiversity conservation policy should not be discounted. It is ENGOs with
foreign linkages that have had relatively free reign to develop biodiversity
conservation projects, in partnership with Chinese governments. The leading
example is The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which entered China only in 1998
(see discussion in Chapter 7), but has now developed 15 project areas in the
northwest Yunnan Province.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has also dramatically expanded
its programs in China, further attracting government attention to, and interest
in, the environment. Like TNC, WWF seeks cooperative relationships with

228 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan