http://www.zhbgov.cn/english/biodiv/state_con/en/bidiv_value_en.htm, last accessed
13/6/2004). The ecosystem service value of the Tibetan plateau alone is 9363.9 10 to the
eighth, accounting for 17.7% of China’s (and 0.6% of the world’s) ecosystem service value.
See Xia Gaodi, Lu Chunxia, Leng Yunfa, Zheng Du and Li Shuangcheng (2003),
‘Ecological Assets Valuaton of the Tibetan Plateau’ (in Chinese), Journal of Natural
Resources, 18 (2) (March), 194.- Lingzhi, Chen (1993), China’s Biodiversity: Current Strategy and Its Conservation Strategy
(in Chinese), Beijing: Science Press, p. 15. It should be noted that estimates of species loss,
both globally and in China and Taiwan, vary greatly. For example, Wilson suggests that a
20% loss in global biodiversity is possible by the year 2022, and he estimates current losses
at 27000 species per year. Quoted in David H. Backus, ‘Life Lines’, in Sharon S. Spray and
Karen L. McGlothlin (2003), Loss of Biodiversity, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield,
p. 22. - Wang Sung and Xie Yan (eds) (2004), (Biodiversity Working Group of China Council for
International Cooperation on Environment and Development), China Species Red List, vol.
I (English and Chinese), Beijing: Higher Education Press. - Ma Keping, Ma Xiangcheng, Wei Wei, and Lu Zhijun (2004), ‘Advances in Key Issues on
Biodiversity Research’, Biodiversity Committee, the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in
Advances in Biodiversity Conservation and Research in China(in Chinese), Beijing:
Chishang Publishing Co., pp. 36–37. - A mega-diversity country is one having a very large number of species and extremely high
levels of endemism. See Russell A. Mittermeier (ed.) (1997), Megadiversity: Earth’s
Biologically Wealthiest Nations, Monterey, Mexico: CEMEX. - Mackinnon, John, Meng Sha, Catherine Cheung, Geoff Carey, Zhu Xiang and David
Melville (1996), A Biodiversity Review of China, Hong Kong: World Wide Fund for Nature
[WWF] International, p. 21. - Jiang Zhigang (2004), ‘Wildlife Conservation in China: Policy, Practice, and Prospects’, in
Jiang Zhigang (ed.), Key Topics in Biodiversity and its Conservation, Beijing: China
Academy of Sciences, 14-page loose-leaf folder. - National Environmental Protection Agency of China (1998), China’s National Report on
Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity, Beijing: China Environmental
Science Press, pp. 7–8. - See National Environmental Protection Administration (1998), ‘National Research Report
on China’s Biological Diversity’ (in Chinese), Beijing: Beijing Environmental Science
Publishing Co., pp. 23–27. - Zheng, Anyi and Shengfeng Shen (2000), ‘Taiwan Shengwu Duoyangxing Xiankuang’
[‘The Current Situation of Taiwan’s Biodiversity’], Taipei: Center for Biodiversity Research,
National Taiwan University, see http://bc.zo.ntu.edu.tw/article/008.pdf, last accessed 21
August 2005. - Taiwan, Government Information Office, ‘Wild Protection – Taiwan at a Glance 2004–05’,
see http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/glance/ch9.htm. - Academia Sinica, ‘Plan for the ‘Research Center for Biodiversity, Academic Sinica
(RCBAS)’, RCBAS promotion team, 1 September 2003, see http://biodiv.sinica.edu.tw/
doc/admin/old/Plan_for_RCBAS.pdf. - See Wood, Alexander, Pamela Stedman-Edwards and Johanna Mang (2000), The Root
Causes of Biodiversity Loss, London: Earthscan. - For a review of causes of environmental degradation in China, see Center for Research on
the Environment and Development, Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences (2001),
‘Present Situation of China’s Environment and a Review of Policies’, in China Environment
and Development Review, vol. I (in Chinese), Beijing: Social Sciences Documentation
Publishing House, pp. 27–44; see also Vaclav Smil (1993), China’s Environmental Crisis,
Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. - Sayer, Jeffrey A. and Changjin Sun (2003), ‘Impacts of Policy Reforms on Forest
Environments and Biodiversity’, in William F. Hyde, Brian Belcher, and Jintao Xu (2003),
China’s Forests: Global Lessons from Market Reforms, Washington, DC: Resources for the
Future, pp. 177–94; and Jerry McBeath, ‘Perspectives on Deforestation’, in Global
16 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan