China should launch “early-warning” education across the country to
let its people know about the fragile ecological conditions in the
vast
western
region, a scientist has warned.
He
pointed out that such education is urgently needed in light of the
implementation of the “go-west” policy drawn up by China’s central
government.
Liu Jiyuan, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences
(CAS), told China Daily that to save the fragile western regions
from possible ecological abuse following the “go-west” policy, the
country has launched a program called “China Ecosystem Assessment”
(CEA), starting with the western land of China.
“Everybody says that our ecosystem is under threat, and many cite
the water shortage and land degradation we have today. But the
accurate condition of our ecosystem as a complete picture is still
unclear even to many scientists,” said Liu, who is also director of
the Institute of Geological Sciences and Resource Research under
CAS.
He
noted that the initiation of CEA is to enable people to better
understand the ecological condition of the country.
Starting from the west, the program will be gradually rolled to the
rest of the country.
The western region makes up two thirds of China and is highly
diverse in terms of ecological and geographic conditions.
However, the western region of China is ecologically fragile. There
exist many ecological problems such as water shortage, land
degradation and heavy potential pressures from population growth
and resources exploitation.
“With the go-west policy, human activity will inevitably have an
increasing pressure on the already ecologically fragile western
region,” Liu said, “Our answer to these problems is science.”
The results of the program is expected to provide strong support to
the policy-making of Chinese government in the coming 20 to 50
years, according to Liu.
The first phase of the program, which spans five years, has started
with assessments of the present situation. “What we need to do
first is to collect comprehensive and reliable data to build a
platform for analysis,” Liu said.
Many researchers and institutes have done enormous work of this
kind in past decades, but from different perspectives.
This program will build an integrated database. Technological
means, such as remote sensing, will be employed. The pivotal step
following the data gathering will be the development of models for
assessment. It will to a great extent determine the accuracy of the
assessment.
Liu disclosed that researchers from CAS and other institutes have
begun the work and collaboration with foreign counterparts is
expected.
With the models, scientists will be able to assess the historical
changes of China’s ecological conditions over the past 20-50 years
and model ecological scenarios in the next half century.
The program also includes evaluation of China’s environmental
policy and its implementation in the western region, on which
proposals on the improvement of environment will be submitted to
the central government.
From this May to next June, models and methods are to be developed.
The integrated ecosystem assessment is to be conducted from then
until the year 2004.
“We want the program to be conducted on a rolling basis, with data
and measures renewed regularly,” Liu said.
The CEA is part of a larger program, Millennium Assessment (MA),
initiated by the United Nations last month. China’s western region
is listed as one of the five sub-global systems under MA.
China got involved in the MA from 1999, when the United Nations
established a steering committee to explore the merits of
undertaking an integrated assessment of the world’s ecosystems.
The Ministry of
Science and Technology, has committed US$1.5 million to the
program and Liu’s institute has been authorized to manage the
program.
The biggest challenge Liu and his colleagues face in the program is
how to coordinate different agencies involved to allow research
resources to be shared by all.
The program involves as many institutes and governmental agencies
as the elements of an ecosystem.
The communication among the participants will determine the success
of the program. “Purely interpersonal, limited communication will
not do,” Liu warned.
(China Daily 07/12/2001)