implementation of the plan largely focused on completing an inventory of
endangered and threatened species.^49
In short, Taiwan’s actions on biodiversity issues have indeed taken into
account international conventions. Motivations for addressing international
standards of biodiversity include the fear of adverse economic repercussions
from trading partners and the desire to improve the state’s international
environmental image.
THE INSTITUTIONAL FRAMEWORK IN CHINA
Although China has announced – in law, regulation and policy – a
commitment to biodiversity conservation, the question is whether it has
allocated sufficient organizational, human, and financial resources and created
adequate incentives in practice to put the regime into effect. To answer this
question requires a focus on administrative organization centrally and sub-
nationally as well as the linkage mechanisms, drawing different agencies
together.
Central Ministries
Like the situation in most countries, the organization of China’s national
bureaucracy is not conducive to the effective implementation of biodiversity
conservation laws and policies. China only developed an environmental
agency, the National Environmental Protection Administration, in 1988. The
name of the agency was changed to the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) in 1998, and it was then elevated to ministerial status;
but it remains a relatively small agency, with only one-twentieth the personnel
of the US EPA,^50 yet with a far more expansive mandate. The SEPA has broad
responsibility for each of China’s major environmental problems, and thus its
attention is diffused to issues of air, water, and land pollution, acid rain, and
climate change. In the area of biodiversity conservation, it has a department of
nature conservation and division of nature reserves and species management;
it also has general responsibility for developing and maintaining the
biodiversity data management and information system.
As most of China’s endangered and threatened species are located in
forested areas, the SFA has large administrative responsibilities for their
preservation. The SFA also is a relatively small agency, with around 250
Beijing office employees only. Since the reorganization of central government
agencies in 1998, its status has declined to the sub-ministerial level. The SFA
is the primary agency for implementation of the WACA and the Forestry Law,
and it is responsible for the management of about 75 percent of China’s
The framework for biodiversity conservation 83