Developers of hydroelectric plant have redrawn the boundaries of a
crucial freshwater reserve for rare and economically important species
Jonathan Watts, Asia environment correspondent
The Guardian, January 18, 2011
The last refuge for many of China's rarest and most economically
important wild fish has mere days to secure public support before it is
trimmed, dammed and ruinously diminished, conservationists warned today.
The alarm was raised after the authorities in Chongqing quietly moved to
redraw the boundaries of a crucial freshwater reserve on the Yangtze,
which was supposed to have been the bottom line for nature conservation
in one of the world's most important centres of biodiversity.
The Upper Yangtze Rare and Endemic Fish Nature Reserve was created in
the 1990s as a haven for species that were threatened by the Three
Gorges dam, the world's biggest hydroelectric plant.
Among the hundreds of species it protects are four types of wild carp
that experts say are essential to China's food security because they
provide the diverse genetic stock on which fish farms depend for healthy
breeding.
In recent years, the importance of this 400km-long ecological hold-out
has increased as China's hunger for energy has driven power companies to
build two more mega-dams � Xiangjiaba and Xiluodu � that have swamped
the shoals and stilled the rapids along thousands of kilometres of
Asia's biggest river.
Downstream, the combination of dams, pollution, overfishing and river
traffic have decimated fish stocks, wiped out at least one species � the
Baiji or Yangtze river dolphin � and left others � like the giant
Yangtze sturgeon (Acipenser dabryanus), the Chinese paddlefish or the
finless porpoise � critically endangered.
Upriver, the state has promised to safeguard the last untamed stretch. A
coalition of scientists and conservationists has opposed development in
the reserve. Premier Wen Jiabao has expressed unease about the impact of
excess dam-building on environmentally important areas.
But this goal has run up against the interests of the Three Gorges
Project Development Corporation and local officials, who want to build
yet another hydroelectric plant at Xiaonanhai that would choke the river
to power the development of the poor local economy.
The developers appear to have gained the upper hand last week when the
Ministry of Environmental Protection announced plans to redraw the
boundary of the reserve so that it would no longer encompass the area of
the proposed dam. This leaves less than 10 days for public discussion,
according to conservationists who are dismayed there has been almost no
domestic coverage, partly because many of the 29 endangered fish species
� such as Chinese paddle, Yangtze sturgeon and Chinese sucker � are
unknown outside of expert circles.
"This is the last hold-out for much of China's freshwater biodiversity.
It is a rare situation when one project can do so much damage," said Ma
Jun of the Institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, one of the
country's leading green campaign groups. "Part of the problem is that
unlike pandas, snub-nosed monkeys or Tibetan antelopes, most people have
not heard of or seen the fish affected."
Local government insists no decision has been made on the dam, but past
precedent suggests that construction will begin before the formal
environmental impact assessment is made, by which time developers will
argue that it would be a huge waste of money to cancel.
Less often calculated is the economic loss of biodiversity. With fewer
wild carp to bolster farm stocks, environmental experts say China is
taking a risk with a primary source of protein. Since the Three Gorges
was built, the downstream carp population has crashed by 90%, according
to Guo Qiaoyu, Yangtze River project manager at The Nature Conservancy.
"This is economically important. We eat a lot of these fish. We need to
help people realise its important to protect fish reserves and not just
tap the power of the river," said Guo. "If we lose this reserve, the
wild population will almost be wiped out.
It is rare for the Nature Conservancy to oppose dam construction, which
they accept as important to China's development. But the US-based NGO
has sent a letter to the government, urging full protection of the
Yangtze reserve, which looks set to be a test case of the authorities'
willingness to conserve.
"I feel very frustrated. This reserve was first set up as a compensation
for the Three Gorges Dam. And then for other dams on the Jingsha
cascade," said Guo. "If you change this reserve again to make way for
another dam, it shows that we don't have a baseline for conservation,
that anything can be overridden in the interests of economic
development. It sets a terrible precedent."
________________________________________________
You received this message as a subscriber on the list: china@list.internationalrivers.org
To be removed from the list, please visit:
http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2486/unsubscribe.jsp
No comments:
Post a Comment