Building Solid Ecological Barriers and Promoting …
759
water resources between upstream and downstream areas, the left and right banks
of rivers, cities and rural areas, industry and agriculture, and industry/agriculture
and ecology. What’s more, over-exploitation of groundwater has severely depleted
water resources—for example, water utilization in Ruo Shui and the Shiyang River
reaches as high as 106% and 142% respectively. Over-exploitation has also depleted
springs in the plains in front of the mountains, made lakes and wetlands smaller,
caused declining groundwater levels, and resulted in deteriorating water quality as
well as vegetation degradation, which led to a decrease in groundwater that aggravated vegetation degradation, creating a vicious circle. Eventually, desertification,
sandification, and salinization are speeding up in the northern part of the Corridor,
one of the main areas that give birth to sandstorms in China.
Fourth, a non-smooth mechanism and insufficient investment make it difficult to
conserve the environment. The ecological protection and construction of the Qilian
Mountains mainly rely on various nature reserves, where there exist contradictions
between the management agencies and local governments, industrial and mining
enterprises and farmers and herdsmen in terms of how to seek balance between environmental protection and economic development. Take the Qilian Mountains national
nature reserve as an example. The reserve’s ecological protection and construction task involves more than 10 ethnic groups of 630,000 people in 71 towns and
villages, in 3 cities and 8 counties along the Hexi Corridor within Gansu and Qinghai
provinces. The reserve management bureau spends a lot of time and energy on coordination, which has significantly reduced their time for doing routine work, because
its subordinate protection stations and forest police stations share the same staff with
local state-owned forest farms—a poor-designed, dual management mode in that
the same people are required to carry out measures from the reserve management
bureau and local governments at the same time. What’s worse, the expenditure of the
1,500-plus management and protection personnel are covered by local governments,
nearly half of which are monitoring expenditure against income. These employees
have a poor working condition with a low salary. Without a decent job, they tend
to live in hardship and cannot keep their mind on work. Therefore, the ecological
protection and construction of the Qilian Mountains is in an undesirable situation of
a serious shortage of investment, an understaffed workforce for extremely difficult
tasks, outmoded infrastructure, and slow progress in vegetation restoration.
Fifth, unclear responsibilities and unbalanced interests make ecological compensation difficult to implement. When it comes to the ecological protection and
construction of the Qilian Mountains, various nature reserves, upstream local governments and the residents have made great contributions, even paying a high price for
losing opportunities for development—a situation characterized by unclear responsibilities and unbalanced interests, namely “management by a few, yet benefits for
others; upstream areas bearing the burden, but downstream ones benefiting.” The
Regulations on the Management of the Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve
in Gansu Province stipulated that “3% of the total water resource fee collected from
the areas benefiting from the Qilian Mountains’ forests conserving water shall be
used to protect and nurture the forests conserving water in the protected areas” and
the policy that in areas with slopes of over 25 degrees, farmlands shall be returned
759
water resources between upstream and downstream areas, the left and right banks
of rivers, cities and rural areas, industry and agriculture, and industry/agriculture
and ecology. What’s more, over-exploitation of groundwater has severely depleted
water resources—for example, water utilization in Ruo Shui and the Shiyang River
reaches as high as 106% and 142% respectively. Over-exploitation has also depleted
springs in the plains in front of the mountains, made lakes and wetlands smaller,
caused declining groundwater levels, and resulted in deteriorating water quality as
well as vegetation degradation, which led to a decrease in groundwater that aggravated vegetation degradation, creating a vicious circle. Eventually, desertification,
sandification, and salinization are speeding up in the northern part of the Corridor,
one of the main areas that give birth to sandstorms in China.
Fourth, a non-smooth mechanism and insufficient investment make it difficult to
conserve the environment. The ecological protection and construction of the Qilian
Mountains mainly rely on various nature reserves, where there exist contradictions
between the management agencies and local governments, industrial and mining
enterprises and farmers and herdsmen in terms of how to seek balance between environmental protection and economic development. Take the Qilian Mountains national
nature reserve as an example. The reserve’s ecological protection and construction task involves more than 10 ethnic groups of 630,000 people in 71 towns and
villages, in 3 cities and 8 counties along the Hexi Corridor within Gansu and Qinghai
provinces. The reserve management bureau spends a lot of time and energy on coordination, which has significantly reduced their time for doing routine work, because
its subordinate protection stations and forest police stations share the same staff with
local state-owned forest farms—a poor-designed, dual management mode in that
the same people are required to carry out measures from the reserve management
bureau and local governments at the same time. What’s worse, the expenditure of the
1,500-plus management and protection personnel are covered by local governments,
nearly half of which are monitoring expenditure against income. These employees
have a poor working condition with a low salary. Without a decent job, they tend
to live in hardship and cannot keep their mind on work. Therefore, the ecological
protection and construction of the Qilian Mountains is in an undesirable situation of
a serious shortage of investment, an understaffed workforce for extremely difficult
tasks, outmoded infrastructure, and slow progress in vegetation restoration.
Fifth, unclear responsibilities and unbalanced interests make ecological compensation difficult to implement. When it comes to the ecological protection and
construction of the Qilian Mountains, various nature reserves, upstream local governments and the residents have made great contributions, even paying a high price for
losing opportunities for development—a situation characterized by unclear responsibilities and unbalanced interests, namely “management by a few, yet benefits for
others; upstream areas bearing the burden, but downstream ones benefiting.” The
Regulations on the Management of the Qilian Mountains National Nature Reserve
in Gansu Province stipulated that “3% of the total water resource fee collected from
the areas benefiting from the Qilian Mountains’ forests conserving water shall be
used to protect and nurture the forests conserving water in the protected areas” and
the policy that in areas with slopes of over 25 degrees, farmlands shall be returned