CHINESE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY PUBLISHES THREE
CERS ARTICLES IN THEIR ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
cngint.com
July 2010
Vol.2 Issue 3, 2010In an exclusive story, Wong How Man, the founder and president of the China Exploration and Research Society (CERS) shares with CNG what’s next for conservation efforts, and his field reports on two recent expeditions by CERS.
Please read an excerpt below:
CONSERVATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY:
WHAT LIES AHEAD FOR CHINA AND THE WORLD
Conservation of the environment has now become a mainstream issue in China. Two decades ago, it was only the rare scientist or animal lover who would raise a lonely voice when forests were destroyed or rivers polluted.
Economic development was the primary goal on the agenda. Nature reserves were turned into tea or rubber plantations and precious endangered species decimated by uncontrolled harvest for quick profits. While the rest of the world celebrated the first Earth Day in 1970, China was embracing “development first, conservation can wait” as the unspoken policy.
Changing Attitudes
The tragic year of floods in 1989 was a turning point in many ways, after which conservation went mainstream in China. It was no longer considered odd to raise the alarm about the wholesale destruction of forests and the damage that this had caused downstream. The concern went beyond mere words, as the policies that conservationists had recommended for years finally became government policies backed by major investment.
Conservation became not just the law, but the policy. Major investments from the World Bank and foreign donors were more than matched by investments from the government itself. The “Grain-for-Green” program, which provided payments to farmers who returned their fields to forests, was matched by major investments in training and infrastructure for key nature reserves. Priorities have finally changed.