In July 1984 some amazing 530 million-year-old fossils of soft-bodied creatures came to light in Yunnan Province. Paleontologists around the world hailed this as one of the most astonishing finds of the 20th century. Today indiscriminate commercial mining operations are threatening these precious deposits.

 

It was Hou Xianguang, a paleontologist with the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, who made these remarkable discoveries. He found them on Maotianshan Mountain in Chengjiang County, Yunnan Province, so the experts classify them as the Chengjiang Cambrian Fauna. They provide important evidence in the mystery of the Cambrian Explosion. This was a time when many new diverse and highly specialized creatures suddenly appeared during the brief Tommotian and Atdabanian stages of the Lower Cambrian.

 

Because of its unique value to science, the Chengjiang lagerstatte was placed on China's first list of A-class national geological parks in March 2001.

 

Now the local government is preparing a bid for World Natural Heritage status but all is not well. Indiscriminate mining is threatening the Maotianshan National Geopark and may be destroying forever, other fossil treasures still lying undiscovered. A number of companies such as the De'an Phosphate Chemical Co. Ltd. of Chengjiang County are working the phosphate deposits in the vicinity. Their operations are seriously damaging the local ecology and causing landslides and mud-rock flows in the region.

 

The 28th Session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee was held in Suzhou, Jiangsu Province during June and July this year. Following up on the event, Chengjiang County has plans to apply for World Natural Heritage listing for the Chengjiang lagerstatte. To support the World Natural Heritage bid they decided to close all the mines around Maotianshan Mountain by the end of 2005. Unfortunately this triggered a final scramble for the phosphates by the mining companies. Some companies expanded their efforts indiscriminately and stopped reinstating the natural environment after their operations.

 

"In previous years the mining operations weren’t too close but now large-scale excavations are moving in towards the heart of the Geopark," said Li Gejun from the Chengjiang station of the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology.

 

"The local government is set to close the mines by the end of next year. So company bosses are rushing to maximize income by excavating as much as possible before they are shut down," explained Zhang Jiliang, head of the Bureau of Land and Resources in Chengjiang County.

 

"Since the fossil layer is located above the phosphate bearing bed, such large-scale mining may result in fossils being lost forever with unthinkable consequences for future scientific exploration here," said Hou Xianguang, who discovered the Chengjiang fauna, showing great concern. "If the local government still wishes to succeed in its World Natural Heritage application, it should close down all the mines immediately."

 

Nevertheless, Xie Zhizhou, chief of Chengjiang's Information Department, admitted frankly that the local government is under tremendous pressure due to conflicting interests involved.

 

Chengjiang is an under-developed county. It has rich phosphate deposits and relies on the phosphate industry as its economic pillar. In the 1980s around the same time that the fossils were found, Chengjiang arranged a state loan of several hundred million yuan to develop its phosphate chemical industry.

 

By 2003 the phosphate industry was generating annual profits of 40 million yuan (about US$5 million), roughly two-thirds of the county's budgetary revenues for the year. The De'an Phosphate Chemical Company produces 300,000 tons of yellow phosphorus and other phosphate products each year. It is Chengjiang's biggest taxpayer, contributing some 30 percent of all the county's tax revenues from the phosphate chemical enterprises.

 

According to the Department of Land and Resources of Yunnan Province, Maotianshan Mountain abounds in high-grade phosphate resources. The proven reserves in the south of the core area of the national Geopark alone amount to some 198 million tonnes. This is 60 percent of the total for the county. It is not surprising that phosphate chemical enterprises are attracted to the mountain for phosphate mining.

 

“It has taken twenty years to develop Chengjiang's phosphate chemical industry. Closing down all the phosphate related enterprises would lead to losses that have been estimated at more than 60 million yuan (about US$7.5 million). In addition there is the state loan to be paid back. It’s clearly too much of a financial loss for the county to cope with,” said Xie Zhizhou.

 

Today Chengjiang faces a dilemma. It is caught between calls to preserve a treasure house of precious fossils and economic reliance on the revenues of an eco-hostile phosphate industry.

 

“It will take ten years to restore the natural environment in the area around Maotianshan Mountain,” said Hou Xianguang.

 

Xie Zhizhou says the county government has set up a special working group. It will visit the area affected by the mining operations and carry out an investigation. Companies that have been damaging the national Geopark's environment will have to suspend production and take responsibility for making good the damage they have caused.

 

(China.org.cn by Shao Da, August 31, 2004)