throughout this volume: the areas of China in greatest need of species
and habitat protection are in the most remote and poorest sections of the
country.
Figure 3.1 presents this information in the form of a map of vertebrate
biodiversity.
Species Endangerment in China
In 1998, the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) published
the Country Report of China Biodiversity, which listed the rate in
endangerment of these taxa: mammals, 22.06 percent; amphibians, 2.46
percent; reptiles, 4.52 percent; birds, 14.63 percent; gymnosperm, about 28
percent; and angiosperm, about 13 percent.^17
The China Species Red Listpresents evidence that the threatened status of
China’s species in 2004 is ‘much more severe than expected before’.^18 Table
3.2 presents information on wild taxa, comparing the percentage of threatened
categories (critically endangered, endangered and vulnerable) and the
percentage that is ‘near threatened’.
Table 3.2 Threatened status of Chinese species
Taxonomic group Percentage threatened Percentage near threatened
(%) (%)
Mammals 39.8 10.7
Birds 7.4 7.4
Reptiles 27.52 15.2
Amphibians 39.9 19.6
Gymnosperm 69.91 21.23
Angiosperm 86.63 7.22
Orchids 78.26 21.24
Source: Adapted by authors from Wang and Xie (2004), China Species Red List, pp. 12–15.
Note: Plant species have not been completely inventoried; the report indicates that ‘The
percentage of endangered plant species much exceeds that from past evaluations’ (p. 12).
In all taxonomic groups with the exception of birds, the percentage of
endangerment has increased astronomically. Nearly 40 percent of mammal
species appear threatened on the 2004 list, as compared to a rate of 22 percent
in the 1998 publication. The rate of change in reptiles is greater, from 4.5 to
27.5 percent; and the rate for amphibians is higher still, from 2.5 to 40 percent.
Part of the change may be accounted for by measurement error, and the lack
48 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan