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)