Governance of Biodiversity Conservation in China And Taiwan

China receives loans or funds for environmental protection from other
development agencies such as the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP)/Global Environmental Facility (GEF) and Asian Development Bank,^9
most of which are implemented by the World Bank. China has established the
Trans-Century Green Project. Multilateral development institutions, including
the GEF, have given it US$3 billion in external assistance and export credits,
with provisions extending to climate change and biodiversity.
Furthermore, China has received assistance to accomplish specific global
environmental objectives. Its commitment to phasing out the use of CFCs in
accordance with the Montreal Protocol Convention was assisted by the
Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund. As of late 1997, China had received the
largest amount of money from the fund, some $149 million – or 26 percent of
the total.^10
The implication of these practices is that China is a passive recipient of
international funding, through which it changes its policy in accord with
international standards. However, this is an erroneous interpretation, for the
Chinese government has determined the regions in China benefiting from
foreign lending assistance and the contours of each large project. Zhang’s
recent review makes this clear:

‘[I]n the allocation of World Bank aid in China, the Bank, as donor, exercises

merely marginal power and the Chinese government, as recipient, plays the decisive

role. Many observations, some made by World Bank officials and others by

scholars, confirm this point. As Zweig reports, for instance, “[B]ank officials stress

that China, not the World Bank, controls the agenda”. According to Pieter Botellier,

one-time chief of the World Bank’s Resident Mission in China, “more than

anywhere, they have used us and they have always been in the driving seat.”’^11

In contrast, Taiwan’s relative diplomatic isolation means that it is unable to
benefit from international lending agencies financially, or with respect to the
improvement of regulations and other environmental practices.

Gradual Warming to Environmentalism?

The final aspect of China and Taiwan’s approach to biodiversity conservation
is also the most recent and tentative – a recognition by leadership of the need
to acknowledge objections to large-scale development projects and to provide
some visible mitigating measures. In China, this recognition may have
motivated the halt (perhaps only temporary) to proposed dam construction on
the Nujiang. Definitely, greater regime awareness of environmental necessities
influenced the afforestation and reforestation policies and the regime’s
embrace of sustainable development. In 2005 China is a far greener state than
it was in the mid-1990s.

230 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan