- Personal interview, representative of IFAW, Beijing, 30 June, 2004.
- See http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/ecology/English/animals_e/HighAnimals_e/, accessed
25 September, 2005. - See http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/ecology/English/bow_e/milk_e.htm, accessed 25 Septem-
ber, 2005. - See http://www.gio.gov.tw/info/ecology/English/bow_e/fish_e/fish_01_e.htm.
- Kano, T. (1940), Zoogeographical Studies of the Tsugitaka Mountains of Formosa, Tokyo:
Institution of Ethnographic Research. - See Patel, A.D. and Y.S. Lin (1989), History of Wildlife Conservation in Taiwan, Forestry
Series Report No. 20, Taipei: COA. - See ETToday.com (http://www.ettoday.com/2005/08/26/327-1836122.htm).
- Harkness, James (1998), ‘Recent trends in forestry and conservation of biodiversity in
China’, China Quarterly, 156 (December), 911. - Program descriptions are drawn from the SFA (2001), Forestry in China, Beijing: SFA,
pp. 14–15, and SFA (2003), China Forestry Development Reports 2003, Beijing: SFA,
pp. 1–15. - Reports of declining grain harvest after the initiation of this program have led to more
cautious implementation. See Zhao Huang (2004), ‘Cautious land-forest conversion
continues in West Region’, China Daily, 15 October, p. l. - China Daily, ‘Afforestation tops priority list among former loggers’, 10 June, 1998, p. 3.
- Chao Liang (2005), ‘China 2020: a greener and leaner landscape’, China Daily, 1 August,
p. 2. - Harkness, op cit, n. 51, p. 924.
- Some logging, now illegal, continued to occur in old growth forests after the ban. One of our
respondents, with specialized expertise in forestry economics, mentioned that the State
Forestry Administrator had said that one-third of industrial wood in China was harvested
illegally. Most of this timber was harvested above the official quota level. This is his
interpretation of how illegal logging continues:
‘On the recommendation of the SFA, the State Council fixes and approves a five-year
quota, which is adjusted annually. Even if you log your own timber without adhering to
a quota, it’s illegal. The SFA administers this law. You would expect there to be tens of
thousands of people in jail, but that’s not the case. Most of the people imprisoned for this
offense are peasants who get caught moonlighting. Maybe they wanted to cut some trees
for a daughter’s dowry, or to pay a debt, or just to have some more to eat. But the state-
owned firms, the forestry farms, systematically over-log. It is not easy to check
nationally on the number of logs that are cut. It is impossible to control the values of over
10,000 national logging sites.
(How is this checked?) There is an extensive network of checking (examination)
stations. At these stations, permits to log are checked. But the system is corrupted.
Loggers give money to local officials to register a lower amount than that actually
logged. Thus, they avoid the quota limit and also avoid paying heavy taxes. Even if you
log 100 cubic meters and are within the permitted quota, you still need to pay something
to pass the examination station. If not, the officials can create obstacles. For example,
they might ask you to take the timber off the truck to measure it, which would take a
great deal of time and effort. So people pay the bribes.
(Does this happen regularly?) It happens all the time. The end result is that five years
later, at the end of that quota period, a national inventory will be taken. SFA will do
surveys; they’ll use remote sensing. Then they discover that the inventory doesn’t match
the quota.’ (Personal interview, Beijing, 13 March, 2004.) - Ibid, p. 931.
- Personal interview with forestry manager, SFA, Beijing, 18 May, 2004.
- Runsheng, Yin, Jintao Xu, Zhou Li, and Can Liu (2005), ‘China’s ecological rehabilitation:
the unprecedented efforts and dramatic impacts of reforestation and slope protection in
Western China’, China Environment Series, issue 7, pp. 28–30.
66 Governance of biodiversity conservation in China and Taiwan