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Investment Projects To Improve Biodiversity In People's Republic of China

Investment projects to improve biodiversity and agricultural output in the People's Republic of China will be prepared under two technical assistance grants totaling US$2.88 million which are being provided by the Asian Development Bank. The grants will be financed mainly by the ADB's Japan Special Fund.

The first grant will prepare the Songhua River Flood, Wetland, and Biodiversity Management Project. The Songhua River drains parts of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces and has a catchment of 556,800 square kilometers. The river basin is sparsely populated and experiences harsh winters. The Sanjiang plain, one of the two major floodplains of the Songhua River, contains the largest contiguous wetlands in East Asia. They are the habitat for numerous species of wildlife and are an important breeding site and migratory post for waterfowl in northeastern Asia.

The project aims to improve flood protection in Songhua River basin and to enhance biodiversity conservation in the Sanjiang wetlands. The wetlands not only absorb floods and regulate flows in the three rivers of Heilong (Amur), Songhua and Wusuli, two of which form international boundaries, but are significant to global biodiversity. The assistance, which adopts an integrated and comprehensive approach, will also consider the impacts on Songhua River basin of such problems as water scarcity, increasing water pollution, soil erosion, and ecosystem degradation.

The second grant will prepare the Yunnan Comprehensive Agricultural Development and Biodiversity Conservation Project to sustain this southwest province's agricultural growth while conserving its rich biodiversity. Yunnan is a poor inland province with over two thirds of its population earning less than the national average per capita income, but ranks the highest among the provinces for biodiversity richness. Many of its plant and animal species are endangered species and/or do not exist elsewhere.

The great majority of its 40 million people are dependent on agriculture. The project will support the Government's "Green Yunnan" strategy to base agricultural growth on sustainable management of the province's natural resources. Specifically, it promotes investments in agroprocessing enterprises to spearhead economic growth, alleviate rural poverty and create contract-growing and employment opportunities for rural households. Its focus is on increasing production and processing of high-value agricultural and pharmaceutical products, ranging from fruits to medicinal plant derivatives.

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