Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Zhigang, a prominent conservation biologist with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has
already suggested the China cannot afford its currently sprawling nature reserves,
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and
current realities suggest that he is right. However, if substantial portions of nature reserves
in western China are reconceived as areas of controlled and limited use (rather than no use),
the current system might not be too large, and could indeed be reasonably expanded.
What would prudent use within these buffer/experimental areas look like? In a nut-
shell, it would resemble traditional land use prior to integration with the market economy.
Industrial and extractive activities whose products are desired by those living outside of
nature reserves would be prohibited. But extensive, low-density use of native flora and
fauna by those with traditional land tenure would be accepted, monitored, and limited.
Because most pastoralists are no longer insulated from market forces, nature reserve staff
must be empowered to enforce restrictions on livestock numbers and areas used. This will
require that nature reserve staff understand—much better than at present—critical areas
for wildlife, and the degree to which they need to be protected from use or disturbance.
It will also require that pastoralists living within nature reserves obtain tangible benefits
to compensate for losing total freedom to ply the market as they wish.
Finally, there needs to be fundamental recognition that, because nature reserves—par-
ticularly within core areas where income generation is impossible—provide critical eco-
system services for all Chinese, they should be supported financially and continuously
by public funds. Financing nature reserves via “socialism with Chinese characteristics”
(that is to say, capitalism) is inappropriate. Better to simply stick with socialism, in which
nature reserve staff run the reserves and the task of income generation falls to everybody
else. Certainly, small-scale enterprises that have minor impacts on ecosystem integrity
and help the bottom line can be welcomed, but the fundamental attitude has to accept
that nature reserves are not capitalistic enterprises.
The combination of these three fundamental reforms (reserving land-use rights for
nature reserve managers, relaxing unrealistic restrictions and reducing the size of some
reserves by jettisoning zones not managed for nature in any case, and funding reserves in
ways that remove their present imperative to promote incompatible development) would
produce a leaner, but much more functional, nature reserve system. Even if the result were
a net loss in total protected area, the increase in quality would more than offset it. Any
embarrassment felt by Chinese should be more than compensated for by their ability to
talk about these smaller (if still quite impressive) acreages with a straight face.
Alas, even a more effectively functioning system of nature reserves can at best provide
only cornerstones for habitat protection when considering the entirety of China's western
landscape. Species that persisted only within designated reserves would be doomed to
perpetual endangerment, because even the largest of reserves are too small to maintain
populations in perpetuity.
Beyond Dedicated Reserves and Hunting Areas
The task of considering wildlife habitat in areas predominately managed for human uses
is always a tough one; at best, wildlife can only be one consideration among many. Fortu-
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