Governance of Biodiversity Conservation in China And Taiwan

poached and traded in China and Southeast Asia. As the monkey’s habitat is
subtropical forests, it is particularly endangered by illegal logging, clearing of
land for agricultural plots and human settlement.
A dozen nature reserves have been established to protect the habitat of the
golden-haired monkeys, and there is pressure from NGOs to increase the
number of protection areas. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has developed a
partnership with SEPA, SFA and the local community to establish a nature
reserve in Laojunshan. Scientists have conducted an analysis of the forest
ecosystem, and worked to create a coordinated management system. Said one
specialist: ‘We want to show the government how to design, manage, and staff
a nature reserve’.^37
The Tibetan antelope is another species endemic to China and found only
on the relatively arid steppes of the Tibetan plateau; in the Chang Tang of
Tibet and adjoining parts of Qinghai and Xinjiang.^38 Although the species
resembles an antelope, it is actually an early branch of a sub-family including
sheep and goats. Once a flourishing species of 1 million at the start of the
twentieth century, hunting has reduced numbers to around 75000 on the
Tibetan plateau.
Schaller describes the economic value of the Tibetan antelope:

‘The antelope has the finest wool known. Marketed internationally under the name

of shahtoosh, the wool is woven into luxury scarves and shawls that sell for several

thousand dollars each in Europe, America, Japan, and elsewhere ... demand by the

fashion industry has in the past two decades led to the illegal slaughter ... both by

nomads and motorized gangs of poachers from towns. The wool is smuggled out of

Tibet, much of it through Nepal, to Kashmir in India and to Italy for weaving.’^39

Increased and more effective enforcement has reduced poaching somewhat,
but market demand is still high for the species, with shawls selling for as much
as US$18000 in Europe and north America.^40 The habitat of the antelope is
also under pressure of increasing human populations and commercial pressure
from livestock raising.
The government established four nature reserves for the protection of the
Tibetan antelope, and plans to increase the area of coverage for them. In
addition, an artificial breeding program has begun. Survival of this species
may be aided by increases in public awareness. In 2004, some theaters in
Beijing and other Chinese cities showed Hoh Xil (kekexili, or Tibetan
antelope), a film picturing the conflict between Tibetan antelope poachers and
a volunteer patrol team attempting to protect the animals, set in 1996.^41
The Chinese alligator is an endemic species in China. Once it was widely
distributed throughout China, but now it is restricted to the Yangtze River and
some of its tributaries, in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. An
estimated 300 remain in the wild.^42

52 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan