government believes that is enough. If it is not enough, officials make more laws
and punish people more severely.
(Source of the problem?) The laws are an important source of the problem. There
is a fundamental flaw. In the United States and Canada, for example, first there is a
case, a legal case, which establishes a precedent. Then there’s legislation to address
the problem and similar ones in the future. In the process of developing laws,
legislators establish a sense of what the problem really is. There’s a process,
managed by interest groups, which have a say, and finally there’s a compromise.
In China, a problem gets to the crisis point; then high officials say write legislation
on it. They call in the law experts. If it is a severe problem, then there will be
severe punishments. Work of the ministries goes to the State Council, to the
National People’s Congress, and the law is promulgated. But who enforces the
law? No one knows if it is feasible to implement it, even though everyone is well-
intentioned.
(How does this apply to biodiversity protection law?) Read the Forestry Law. It
has severe punishments. Go to the SFA and ask them for their anjian(cases of
punishment). If you cut trees illegally, start fires in forests, convert forest land to
crop land: they can send you to jail. They actually do that. Yet there is still illegal
logging in China.’^15Thus, part of the problem in the legal framework reflects the transitional
nature of law in Chinese society. As Ma and Ortolano comment,
‘environmental laws are general and often intentionally ambiguous, (and) they
allow the State Council, national agencies, and local governments to add
details that influence implementation’.^16
National Regulations
Regulations (fagui) are a less authoritative basis for action than legislation.
They do not undergo a public review process, as occurs increasingly for
proposed legislation through the National People’s Congress. They may not be
publicly available, raising the question of what the limits to action are. They
do reflect negotiations among affected bureaucratic interests, and are issued by
China’s paramount administrative body, the State Council.
Three sets of regulations implement the WACA. Regulations on ‘Terrestrial
Wild Animal Conservation’, issued in 1992, include specific stipulations
on the protection of wild animals, management of wild animal hunting,
and domestication, reproduction, and other utilization of wild animals.
Regulations on ‘Aquatic Wild Animal Conservation’ were issued in 1993;
they prohibit fishing, killing, the sale and purchase of key national protected
aquatic wild animals and institute a permit system for their domestication.
Regulations on ‘Wild Plant Conservation’, issued in 1996, prohibit the
collection, sale, or purchase of key wild plant species; they also outline rescue
measures for endangered plants and recovery of their habitats.
The framework for biodiversity conservation 71