Please provide to following details on the origin of this report
Contracting Party / ChinaNational Focal Point
Full name of the institution: / International Cooperation Department
State Environmental Protection Administration
Name and title of contact officer: / Mr. Zhang Shigang, Deputy Director General
Mailing address: / 115 Xizhimen Nanxiaojie, Beijing, 100035, China
Telephone: / +86-10-66151761
Fax: / +86-10-66151762
E-mail: /
Contact officer for national report (if different)
Full name of the institution: / Office of CBD Implementation, China
Name and title of contact officer: / Mr. Dehui Wang, Deputy Director General
Mailing address: / 115 Xizhimen Nanxiaojie, Beijing, 100035, China
Telephone: / +86-10-66111453
Fax: / +86-10-66151762
E-mail: /
Submission
Signature of officer responsible for submitting national report:
Date of submission:
Please provide summary information on the process by which this report has been prepared, including information on the types of stakeholders who have been actively involved in its preparation and on material which was used as a basis for the report
1. Entrusted by Office of CBD implementation, China, Nanjing Institute of Environment Sciences, State Environmental Protection Administration of China, is responsible for compilation of the report. Meanwhile, a number of experts appointed by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Construction, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and State Forestry Administration also took part in the compilation of the report.
2. According to the format of the case study report, a preliminary manuscript was compiled by participating institutions. A series of workshops were held to discuss the preliminary manuscript, suggestions and supplementary information were provided, and the suggested report was finished.
3. The suggested report was submitted to Office of CBD implementation, China, revised further and submitted to state Environmental Protection Administration of China.
The following references were used in the report:
1. Ministry of Forestry. 1995. China's Agenda 21—-Forestry Action Plan, China Forestry Press, Beijing.
2. State Development and Planning Commission, and State Science and Technology Commission, etc, 1995. Planning on Priority Projects of China's Agenda 21. Beijing.
3. State Environmental Protection Administration. 1998. China’s Biodiversity: A Country Study. China Environmental Sciences Press. Beijing.
4. State Environmental Protection Administration. 1998. China's National Report on Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. China Environmental Sciences Press, Beijing.
5. State Environmental Protection Administration. 2001. China's Second National Report on Implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity. China Environmental Sciences Press, Beijing.
6. State Forestry Administration. 1999, 2000. China yearbook of Forestry (1999-2000). China Forestry Press. Beijing.
7. Xue Dayuan and Gao Zhengning. 1995. Technical Commentary and Implementation Strategy for the Convention on Biological Diversity. China Environmental Sciences Press. Beijing.
8. Xue Dayuan and Jian Mingkang. 1994. Construction and Management of Nature Reserves in China. China Environmental Sciences Press. Beijing.
Decision IV/7 on Forest biological Diversity
a) High / X / b) Medium / c) Low
2. To what extent are the resources available adequate for meeting the obligations and recommendations made?
a) Good / b) Adequate / c) Limiting / X / d) Severely limiting
3. Has your country assessed the status and trends of its forest biological diversity and identified options for its conservation and sustainable use? (Decision IV/7, paragraph 12)
a) no
b) assessment underway (please give details below) / X (see below)
c) assessment completed (please give details below)
d) not relevant
If a developing country Party or a Party with economy in transition -
4. Has your country requested assistance through the financial mechanism for projects that promote the implementation of the focused work programme an forest biological diversity? (Decision IV/7, paragraph 7)
a) no
b) yes (please give details below) / X (see below)
Programme element 1: Holistic and inter-sectoral ecosystem approaches that integrate the conservation and sustainable use of biological diversity, taking account of social and cultural and economic considerations
a) no
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below)
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below) / X
d) not applicable
6. Has your country developed methodologies to advance the integration of traditional forestrelated knowledge into sustainable forest management, in accordance with Article 8(j)? (Work Programme, paragraph 14)
a) no
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below)
d) not applicable
7. Has your country promoted cooperation on the conservation and sustainable use of forest biological resources at all levels in accordance with Articles 5 and 16 of the Convention? (Work Programme, paragraph 15)
a) no
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below)
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below) / X
d) not applicable
8. Has your country promoted the sharing of relevant technical and scientific information on networks at all levels of protected forest areas and networking modalities in all types of forest ecosystems? (Work Programme, paragraph 17)
a) no
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below)
d) not applicable
Programme element 2: Comprehensive analysis of the ways in which human activities, in particular forest-management practices, influence biological diversity and assessment of ways to minimize or mitigate negative influences
9. Has your country promoted activities for an enhanced understanding of positive and negative human influences on forest ecosystems by land-use managers, policy makers, scientists and other relevant stakeholders ) (Work Programme, paragraph 29)a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below)
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below) / X
d) not relevant
10. Has your country promoted activities to assemble management experiences and scientific, indigenous and local information at the national and local levels to provide for the sharing of approaches and tools that lead to improved forest practices with regard to forest biological diversity? (Work Programme, paragraph 30)
a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below)
d) not relevant
11. Has your country promoted activities with the aim of providing options to minimize or mitigate negative and to promote positive human influences on forest biological diversity? (Work Programme, paragraph 31)
a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below)
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below) / X
d) not relevant
12. Has your country promoted activities to minimize the impact of harmful alien species on forest biological diversity? (Work Programme, paragraph 32)
a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below)
d) not relevant
13. Has your country identified means and mechanisms to improve the identification and prioritisation of research activities related to influences of human activities, in particular forest management practices, on forest biological diversity? (Work Programme, paragraph 33)
a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited extent (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant extent (please give details below)
d) not relevant
14. Does your country hold research results and syntheses of reports of relevant scientific and traditional knowledge on key forest biological diversity issues and, if so, have these been disseminated as widely as possible? (Work Programme, paragraph 34)
a) not relevant
b) some relevant material, but not widely disseminated
c) significant material that could be more widely disseminated (please give details below) / X
d) yes - already widely disseminated (please give details below)
15. Has your country prepared casestudies on assessing impacts of fires and alien species on forest biological diversity and their influences on the management of forest ecosystems and savannahs? (Work Programme, paragraph 35)
a) no – please indicate below whether this is due to a lack of available case-studies or for other reasons
b) yes – please give below any views you may have on the usefulness of the preparation of casestudies for developing a better biological understanding of the problem and/or better management responses. / X
Programme element 3: Methodologies necessary to advance the elaboration and implementation of criteria and indicators for forest biological diversity
16. Has your country assessed experiences gained in national and regional processes, identifying common elements and gaps in existing initiatives and improving indicators for forest biological diversity? (Work Programme, paragraph 43)a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited assessment made (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant assessment made (please give details below)
d) not relevant
17. Has your country carried out taxonomic studies and inventories at the national level which provide for a basic assessment of forest biological diversity? (Work Programme, paragraph 43)
a) minimal activity
b) yes – limited assessment made (please give details below) / X
c) yes – significant assessment made (please give details below)
d) not relevant
If you have ticked any of the boxes in questions 5 to 17 above which invite you to provide further details, please do so here.
(Information can include descriptions of methodologies and of activities undertaken, reasons for success or failure, outcomes and lessons learned)
RE 3 bChina pays high attention to the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity, took a lot of measures and has reached significant achievements.
The current situation and problems of forest biological diversity
a) The current situation of forest biodiversity
China has an area of 158.941 million ha of forests, with forest stock of 11.27 billion m3 and forest coverage of 16.55%. Forest types are very diverse, including coniferous, mixed coniferous and broad-leafed, deciduous broad-leafed, ever-green broad-leafed, and tropical forests. In addition to the natural forests, there are many other types of man-made forests, including timber, shelter, non-timber forests and agroforests.
China possesses over 30000 species of seed plants, ranked third in the world. China has 250 species of gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the world. There are numerous types of endemic plants in China, including over 17300 endemic species, 247 endemic genera and 5 endemic families. China also possesses a lot of precious and rare plants known as “living fossils”, such as Metasequoia glyptostroboides, Ginkgo biloba, Cathaya argyrophylla and Cycas panzhihuaensis and so on.
China possesses 6347 species of vertebrates, including 581 species of mammals, 1244 species of birds, 284 species of amphibians, 376 species of reptiles and so on. Large parts of them live in the inner or marginal forest region. China also possesses numerous types of endemic animals, such as Ailuropoda melanolauca, Rhinopitheacus roxellanae, Cervus albirostris, Budorcas taxicolor, Elaphodus cephalophus,etc.
b) Problems of forest biodiversity
·Low coverage of vegetations and small forest land per capita
The forest area per capita is only 0.12 ha in China, 12% of the world average. Forest stock per capita is less than 13% of the world average. Forest coverage is low and only the half of the world average. The forests are distributed unevenly.
·Low forest production and low forest stock per unit area
The average standing forest stock per hectare is 78.06m3 in China, the average standing timber forest stock per hectare is 72.5 m3 and the average man-made standing forest stock per hectare is 34.76 m3. The standing forests with canopy density between 0.2 and 0.3 make up 20.1% of the whole standing forests. These indicators are much less than that of countries with developed forestry in the world.
·Unreasonable forest age structure and continuous declining logging resources
The young and medium-aged standing forests are up to 71.1% of the whole standing forests in China. The young and medium-aged timber standing forests are up to 74.4% of the whole timber standing forests. During the statistic period, the area of mature standing forests lost 172 thousand ha, and its stock lost 160 million m3. With the declining of logging forest resources, the area and stock of logged young and medium-aged standing forests are up to 78.5% of the total logged area and 57.7% of total logged stock, respectively. This poses severe threats to the development of reserve resources.
·Too large logged forests and continuous ascending consumption of forest stock
The over logging of forests is very serious. The average net consumption of timbers is 370.752 million m3 annually in China. A lot of forestlands are converted for other purposes, or illegally occupied and converted to non-forest lands. The converted forestlands to other purposes or illegally occupied forestlands are 562 thousand ha every year.
·Heavy destruction and degradation of forests
The destruction and degradation of forests leads to serious soil and water erosion. The area of soil and water erosion is up to 3.67 million km2, 38% of country land and increased by 10 thousand km2 annually. The area of land desertification is increasing continuously and up to 2.62 million km2, much more than the national farmland area, and increased by 6700 km2 annually.
·Descending wild plant and animal resources
Wild plant and animal resources are descending. 15% to 20% of total species are threatened. Some thousands of plants and animals are endangered. A number of wild precious plants and animals have disappeared in China.
The programme on the conservation and sustainable use of forest biodiversity
·The projects on shelter forest system construction in the Three-North region and the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River were implemented.
·The construction of nature reserves and forest parks was strengthened
Until the end of 2000, 1227 nature reserves were founded, with a total area of 98.208 million ha, constituting 9.85% of the country land. 1050 forest parks were founded, with a total area of 9.825 million ha. The construction of nature reserves and forest parks provides effective conservation of forest biodiversity.
·The conservation of wild plants and animals resources was implemented
China has compiled the Construction Planning on the National Conservation Engineering of Wild Plants and Animals and their Habitat, the Construction Planning on National Wild Zoological Gardens, the Five-year Planning on the Implementation of the Engineering of Protecting Giant Panda and Its Habitat in China and so on. At present, China initially finished the national investigation on wild plant and animal resources, and at the stage of inspection and appraisal of the investigation.