sustainable use of biodiversity components, and fair and equitable sharing of
benefits from the use of genetic resources.
Although not a party to the CBD, Taiwan has developed a national strategy
for the conservation of biological diversity meeting objectives of the
convention. In April 1999, the COA began compiling a national report on
Taiwan’s biodiversity, and the Executive Yuan has agreed to the implemen-
tation of a biodiversity action plan.^47 Furthermore, Taiwan’s executive named
2000 as the Year of Taiwan’s Biodiversity Conservation.
Sustainable development
The United Nations’ Brundtland Commission report of 1987, Our Common
Future, made sustainable development a criterion of the effectiveness of
environmental measures for all countries. The report defined sustainable
development as ‘development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the development of future generations’. The Rio Summit
of 1992 formally adopted sustainable development as an objective for all
nations, and enacted Agenda 21, a large and complex blueprint for global
social development and environmental conservation. These actions were
reinforced in the Rio +5 meeting and in the 2002 Johannesburg Sustainable
Development World Summit, which specifically called for national action
plans.
Taiwan’s Executive Yuan established a National Council for Sustainable
Development (NCSD) in 1997. Initially the NCSD was chaired by a Minister-
Without-Portfolio, but the chair passed to the Vice Premier in 1999 and to the
Premier in 2002. The de facto chair at the time of writing, Yeh Jiun-rong, also
held the position of vice premier. Members of the NCSD include government
officials and also scholars, experts, and representatives of ENGOs. Divided
into eight working groups, the NCSD had developed, by late 2002, broad
action plans.
The fourth working group of NCSD focuses on biodiversity issues. Its three
broad objectives are to:
- strengthen study, management, conservation, utilization and fair sharing
of biodiversity; - strengthen management on biodiversity; and
- encourage cooperation partnerships to facilitate biodiversity work.
However, the action details are vague. For example, an action recom-
mendation under the first objective calls for carrying out ‘monitoring and
assessment for land, wetland and ocean biodiversity every three to five
years in order to detect and predict the possible changes’.^48 The COA is the
leading government agency for the biodiversity working group, and its
82 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan