Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
DO LAWS CONSTITUTE A WILDLIFE
CONSERVATION SYSTEM?
China's wildlife laws fail to help wildlife much not because they are too weak, but—ironically
—because they are so draconian. They are aspirational in a way that renders them merely
pointers toward an ideal, if unrealistic, goal, and thus allows real power to remain with
local officials or private parties whose priorities are usually elsewhere. They fail to help
wildlife much because they tacitly assume that costs and benefits of wildlife conservation
can be realized on a scale that is unprecedented and unrealistic: thirteen hundred mil-
lion people, spread from the tropical forests of Hainan to the bleak deserts of Xinjiang.
Because laws bearing on wildlife conservation are viewed as relative and subject to lo-
cal interpretation (and, at times, complete disregard), any such laws that are too heavily
weighted toward the interests of wildlife actually work against conservation. Anyone
who would point out clauses in existing law that appear to disallow activities harmful to
wildlife or wildlife habitat is liable to be met with an ironic smile, an embarrassed laugh,
and the slightly condescending tone of the experienced toward the naïve, reminding the
complainer that this is still China after all, and that regardless of legal questions, people's
livelihoods must take precedence.
Given the deep gulf between the Chinese and Western concepts of what law is, what
law does, and how law is expected to operate in society, it is understandable that Western
critics have suggested that, if wildlife conservation efforts are insufficient or ineffective, the
answer must simply be better laws, or better implementation of existing laws.
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But even
in Western countries, laws themselves are not capable of constituting a wildlife conserva-
tion system;
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at best, they can formalize the boundaries implicit in the underlying social
agreements about wildlife's worth. What is surprising is that so many Chinese themselves
adopt the position that better conservation is synonymous with better laws.
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We should
know by now that laws relevant to wildlife conservation in China are but a small piece
of the puzzle. They can hardly be expected to shoulder the load themselves.
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