The Mao'er Mountain Nature Reserve in Guilin, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is under
state level protection. On February 8, it received a 10 million
yuan (US$1.29 million) donation from the Global Environment
Facility (GEF) for the protection of the biodiversity of the area,
Chinanews.com reported on February 8.
The nature reserve is located at the source of the Lijiang River
with a total area exceeding 17,000 hectares. With a history of over
2,000 years, the area is renowned for its green mountains, clear
water, and uncommon stone formation. As for its unique geological
position and biodiversity, the reserve has been selected as one of
China's 16 key areas with internationally significant land
diversities.
Meanwhile three other nature reserves in the autonomous region
(Daming Mountain Nature Reserve in Nanning, Nonggang Nature Reserve
in Chongzuo and Mulun Nature Reserve in Hechi) also received
donations from GEF. It is the first time that the autonomous
region's nature reserves received donations from an international
organization, said local officials. And the donations will be used
for "the protection of the region's biodiversity with global
protective significance, and also for improving the nature
reserve's management level, personnel quality and community
construction."
The region, developed later as compared to other parts of the
country, has been continuously seeking international aid over the
past few years to enlarge its investment in forestry development
and protection. In January the region's comprehensive forestry
development and protection project got international and domestic
organizations' aid with total investments reaching 1.655 billion
yuan (US$213.67 million), of which US$100 million was from the
World Bank, US$5.25 million from GEF and US$103.8 million from
domestic organizations.
The region's comprehensive forestry development and protection
project is aimed at building commercial forest, multi-functional
shelter-forest, and closing hillsides (to livestock grazing and
fuel gathering) in order to facilitate reforestation. The project
will last five years.
The forest on the trial basis for carbon absorbing, carbon
testing and carbon trade is the first of its kind in the world to
implement the Kyoto Protocol's clean energy development system by
making use of biological carbon. The project is also the World
Bank's first forestation project in this country with Chinese
involvement in the development process. The project involves five
nature reserves and surrounding areas and about 200,000 rural
households.
The 437-kilometer-long Lijiang River, a branch of the Pearl
River, runs from the Mao'er Mountains north of Guilin through
Yangshuo and Pinle to Wuzhou, where it joins the Xijiang River.
Local statistics show that the forest coverage on the Mao'er
Mountains steadily fell from the 1950s to the 1990s. Forested area,
which accounted for some 40,000 hectares in 1958, had plummeted to
17,700 hectares by 1980. Even now, economic development is still
based on traditional exploitation of the local forest. The number
of lumber mills continues to creep up, while loggers threaten the
protected zones.
(China.org.cn by Li Jingrong, February 12, 2007)
