Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
nately, if protected areas are sufficiently abundant and well managed, wildlife need not be
the sole, or even a particularly high, priority on pastoral lands outside of nature reserves.
If viewed as a matrix within which protected areas serve as sources, it is only necessary
that species persist at moderate densities within these areas. Further, if combined with
prudently managed consumptive use (as I suggest above), the ground upon which any
formal measures for habitat protection must be rooted will have been fertilized, as it were,
and much more likely to be successful than under the current scheme. Even if no formal
mechanism for giving wildlife a voice on these nonprotected lands can be developed,
local people will have been provided some incentive to moderate their livestock grazing
or other competing activities in favor of wildlife, simply as a function of their being able
to benefit tangibly from its presence.
However, somewhat later in the evolution of this system as envisaged, it would be
appropriate to provide formal mechanisms whereby the by-then strengthened wildlife
authorities at local and provincial levels could represent the needs of wildlife amid the
other land uses considered. Are there species that are vulnerable to particular develop-
ments in particular areas, and for which compromises, even in nonprotected areas, should
be made? Are there mitigations that might be associated with an industrial project that
would greatly reduce the harm done to a wildlife population of importance? These are
the types of questions typically addressed in a developed-country setting; when China
is able to address them as well, it will truly have reached the status in natural resource
management that it is already so close to reaching in other economic endeavors. To do so,
however, the current modes of decision making—secretive and segregated into narrowly
defined, turf-conscious bureaus—will have to give way to multidisciplinary teams in which
legitimate and competing interests are recognized and balanced. Environmental NGOs,
a newly emerging force in China, can help in training and facilitating communication
between nascent wildlife management authorities and local residents.
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Ecotourism
Notably missing thus far has been any discussion of nonconsumptive ecotourism as a
means to add value to wildlife and its habitat. That omission is deliberate. Despite its
prominence in general discussions of adding economic value to wildlife, I remain skeptical
that ecotourism has much potential to help wildlife in the vast spaces of western China.
Certainly, it should always be listed on any menu of options, and promoted if an objec-
tive assessment suggests it can provide benefits that outweigh its costs. But I suspect that
many who uncritically tout ecotourism's potential have not spent much time in western
China. (Additionally, there has been a tendency for nature tourism in China to morph into
intensive tourism, threatening any fragile resources it was intended to protect.
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)
Why such a pessimistic view of ecotourism's potential? It is primarily because of the
spatial scale and harsh environment in most of China's west. Systems that depend on
economic incentives from nature tourists would seem most appropriate where neces-
sary tourist infrastructure can be centralized, thus minimizing the cost and disruption of
providing for people, and at the same time maximizing the probability of their having a
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