China’S Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve in Jilin Province is at the center of an ecological protection debate after revealing ambitions to establish and lead a new international organization, the World Protected Areas Alliance.

Around 150 ecologists and nature reserve managers from China and 15 countries and regions were divided on the mission and operations of the proposed organization after a feasibility discussion Sunday in the Changbai Reserve in China’s northeast.

Talks continued during the First Changbai Mountain International Ecological Forum that opened on Monday and concluded on Tuesday. A proposal for the new organization was prepared by the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve Management Bureau.

Cai Hongwei, the bureau’s deputy director, said the initiative aims to strengthen communication and cooperation among protected areas worldwide and improve nature reserve management.

Xie Yan, an associate research professor with the Institute of Zoology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences charged with leading the project, detailed the draft work plan for the alliance.

“More than 10 percent of land is covered by protected areas worldwide. However, there is a lack of long-term cooperation mechanisms among protected areas, many advanced concepts and technologies have not been widely promoted, and the joint forces of scientific research and conservation have not been applied,” she said. “Therefore, it is crucial to establish the World Protected Areas Alliance to promote information exchange and sharing in research, conservation and management of protected areas.”

Overlapping?

Some experts expressed concern that the proposed organization might overlap existing international organizations such as the World Commission for Protected Areas under the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the world’s oldest and largest global environmental organization.

“I am of two minds. If you feel there is a need to make something new, that means you are not happy with what exists. There is an international organization for protected areas. Maybe we’d better look at how we could improve that before having a new one,” said Dr John Mackinnon, a senior biodiversity expert and honorary professor at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, UK.

“I don’t want to see a competition between any new alliance and the existing Mackinnon, who said he is undecided, cited IUCN’s weak presence in China. “They are not really participating in that very much. They have a very small office in Beijing and they don’t offer a lot. So maybe China wants to do something else, but they want to do it big and do it globally as well,” he said.

Xie Yan said existing protection systems, including the IUCN’s World Commission of Protected Areas, are top-down structures that are academic in nature and function as brain trusts. “The proposed alliance could focus on governance of protected areas and act as a hands-on implementer. It still needs the intellectual support of existing organizations, but at the same time could facilitate better implementation at the local level,” she said.

“My biggest concern is that we have a very fancy talk here and end up nowhere if the program is overstretched,” said Wang Ding, secretary general of the Chinese National Committee for Man and Biosphere (MAB) Program, a member of UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

“I suggest that a secretariat be established within the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve with clear-cut financial guarantees to prepare for the establishment of the alliance. In the beginning, it would be better to zero in on a specific focus, such as a sub-alliance for protected mountain regions, otherwise it runs the risk of being short-lived,” said Wang.

Professor Chung-II Choi, former Chair of the UNESCO/MAB Program International Coordinating Council Committee, said he had high hopes that the alliance would be successful, suggesting that Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve should first establish alliances with neighboring countries, such as Mongolia, Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan, and then possibly expand the alliance to South Asia.

“Finance will be a major problem but there are many solutions. Membership, contributions and government support can be used to guarantee the program’s finances,” said Choi.

The Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve initiative as a good starting point to beef up local management of protected areas, said Dr Natarajan Ishwaran, visiting professor with the International Center on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the auspices of UNESCO,

“Local rules and regulations within the framework of national and international laws and their effective enforcement are critical to the conservation of protected areas. Local government engagement and support are indispensable for success,” he said.

Treasure of East Asia

“Changbai Mountain is a treasure of East Asia. It hasn’t been changed much by human activities, therefore we may keep it as a starting point for conservation and expand gradually,” said Choi.

Xu Zhihong, chairman of the Chinese National Committee of MAB Program, said he saw the need to press ahead with the alliance because of tangible realistic needs. “We really need a platform to share the lessons and experiences of international peers and see how to improve our own work to benefit not just the Chinese but people across the world,” he said.

Xu said one of the challenges for conservation in China is a conflict between ecological preservation and economic and social well-being.

“Most Chinese government officials will put economic development first and associate development of protected areas with construction of mega-infrastructure. That is partly because our protected areas have been inhabited by the Chinese, and ethnic groups in particular, for centuries or even thousands of years. Local dwellers need to develop along with the reserves,” he said.

Unlike developed countries, where most nature reserves are run by experts, China’s more than 300 reserves are mainly run by government officials who lack ecological knowledge and have to deal with multi-channel management from a variety of higher-ups ranging from forestry, environmental protection, agriculture and aquaculture authorities, Xu said.

Conservation of protected areas is a long-term undertaking, and institutional and financial support from the government is required to secure its stable development. However, many local nature reserves have to provide for themselves and their administrators tend to be transferred at the end of their tenures, he added.

“I think China’s top leaders are well-aware of the significance of ecological protection, but it’s a different story when it comes to officials at the grassroots level. If the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve initiative can make a breakthrough in facilitating cooperation in protected areas management, it’s quite valuable in my view,” said Xu.

As John MacKinnon observed, many problems facing China also exist in protected areas across the world. These problems include the failure to address underlying causes of biodiversity loss, the failure to utilize indigenous knowledge and interest, and the failure to train mid-level workers.

Dr Ishwaran said there are 2,500 areas similar to Changbai Mountain in China and at least tens of thousands in the world, and people and local governments in these areas should communicate with one another more, rather than just international organizations talking among themselves.

Likening the conservation of protected areas to an American football game, Dr Ishwaran said ecologists and nature reserve management should not always be on the defensive if they want to improve conservation.

“Decentralization is the global trend and more power has been given to regions. Local governments will matter more in the global conservation of protected areas. If you want a perfect situation in which to do something, it’s not going to happen,” he said.

The authors are Xinhua writers.