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Minqin oasis in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River is a main natural barrier for the Wuwei Basin. Due to the combined influence of human activities and natural factors in the past half a century, water quality in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River decreased and ecological environment deteriorated, which influenced sustainable development of this area and surrounding area seriously. This paper analyzed current situation and reasons of the deteriorated ecological environment in the lower reaches of the Shiyang River, and proposed that water environment regulation was the primary task in the eco-environment control of Minqin area, specifically, (a) By using existing policies, accelerating the construction of water-saving agriculture in the middle reaches of the Shiyang River, water quantity in the lower reaches would be guanranted, water shortage for agricultural production and ecological use in Minqin oasis would be relieved; (b) Unreasonable human activities such as overexploitation of underground water should be controlled strictly; (c) Water conservancy project should be developed vigorously to ensure rate of flow. It was expected that the above schemes would contribute to the benign circulation of ecological environment in Minqin oasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has among the highest biodiversities in the world, but faces extreme biodiversity losses due to the country's huge population and its recent explosive socioeconomic development. Despite huge efforts and investments by the government and Chinese society to conserve biodiversity, especially in recent decades, biodiversity losses may not have been reversed, and may even have been exacerbated by unintended consequences resulting from these projects. China's centralized approach to biodiversity conservation, with limited local participation, creates an inflexible and inefficient approach because of conflicts between local communities and national administrators over the benefits. Although community-based conservation may be an imperfect approach, it is an essential component of a successful future national conservation plan. Biodiversity conservation should be considered from the perspective of systems engineering and a governance structure that combines centralization with community-level conservation. In this paper, we describe China's complex challenge: how to manage interactions between humans and nature to find win-win solutions that can ensure long-term biodiversity conservation without sacrificing human concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses how parties can litigate under the Hong Kong's Wild Animals Protection Ordinance for the protection of pink dolphins, as of July 2014. Topics discussed include provisions available in the ordinance for protection of pink dolphins and other marine species; need of statutory amendments to protect Hong Kong's natural resources, habitat, and species; and the Hong Kong's court case 'Shum Kwok Sher v. Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR).'

China is the largest consumer of turtles in the world and international trade has been cited as the greatest threat to Asian turtles. Two main types of trade in live turtles occur in China: for food and traditional Chinese medicine, and for pets, including those for release by Buddhists. The food trade involves the largest quantities of turtles. In recent years, however, the international pet turtle trade has increased dramatically. Yuehe Pet Market in Guangzhou is the largest pet market in China. selling live chelonians and other animals.To understand the potential impacts of the pet trade on chelonians we conducted seven surveys in Yuehe Pet Market from August 2006 to March 2008. Over 39,000 individual chelonians of 61 species were recorded (19.1% of the global total of 319 species). Fifteen (24.6%) of these species are native to China and 46 (75.4%) are native to other countries. Two are designated as grade II key state-protected species in China. Thirty-eight (62.3%) are CITES listed species (four in CITES Appendix I, 26 in CITES II and eight in CITES III). Four are categorized on the IUCN Red List as Critically Endangered, 16 as Endangered and 19 as Vulnerable. Our surveys indicate that increasing demand and the illegal international pet trade could be having a severe impact on chelonian conservation, and we make recommendations for law enforcement and conservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The north-west Tibetan Plateau in China is currently undergoing development-related changes in land use that illustrate a significant mismatch between national/ international conservation objectives and national livestock and other rangeland development goals for the region. Areas designated as nature reserves are being subjected to the same livestock development policies as elsewhere on the Plateau, including interventions that are detrimental to the supposedly protected wildlife populations. Unintended effects of some livestock development activities, such as the fencing of winter grazing areas and resultant enhancement of illegal hunting, have been little considered in overall development actions inside the nature reserves. We address these issues within the 300,000 km2 Chang Tang Nature Reserve, covering much of the north-west Plateau, and concentrate on Gertse County in the western part of the Reserve. There are still tens of thousands of Tibetan antelope Pantholops hodgsonii, Tibetan gazelle Procapra picticaudata, kiang Equus kiang and other species in the north-west Chang Tang, and long-distance antelope calving migrations are still relatively intact. However, increasing human and livestock populations, new rangeland management initiatives, effects of mining activity and continued hunting have the potential to counter conservation initiatives even in the most critical areas for wildlife in the region. Within the nature reserves livestock carrying capacity determinations that allow for wildlife needs and recognize the variable climate are essential. Livestock fencing amenable to wildlife movement, a ban on fencing in areas critical to wildlife, and other actions that mitigate negative effects on wildlife are needed in nature reserves where antelope and other species are still abundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since coming to power in 2002, China's ‘fourth generation’ leadership has attempted to steer the country on to a new development path that emphasises environmental protection and resource conservation. This article argues that this has opened up a window of opportunity for China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), long perceived as a weak body, to expand its influence and improve implementation of environmental policies. This article examines two recent SEPA initiatives, green GDP and so-called ‘environmental storms’, to see to what extent SEPA has been able to achieve these outcomes. It concludes that, although the profile of environmental issues has risen as a result of these two initiatives, they also highlight the difficulties inherent in enforcing better environmental standards in an authoritarian political system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and China are responsible for nearly 40 per cent of total annual greenhouse gas emissions. Global climatic stabilization cannot succeed without the participation of people and organizations in the PRC and the USA. Given the likelihood of continued political paralysis at the national level in both countries, it is important to assess the strengths, weaknesses, and potential of nongovernmental actors in bringing about durable reductions in GHG emissions. Consumption trajectories present one of the most intractable barriers to anthropogenic GHG-emissions reductions and to long-term climatic stabilization. Nordlund and Garvill's (2003) model is adapted and applied in assessing prospects for value change, specific problem awareness, and sustainable-consumption behavior in the PRC and USA. The contributions of nonstate actors are elucidated when issue bundling (specifically links with stress reduction and healthy futures) and principle bundling are incorporated into the explanatory framework. The involvement of transnationally competent activists in emissions mitigation projects, value change, and durable sustainable-consumption practices provides a beacon for future possibilities. Chinese transnationals are a key overlooked and underestimated piece in the current emissions-reduction puzzle because of their critical position at the intersection of values, behavior change, and nongovernmental institutions directly and indirectly involved in climatic-change mitigation. Given their special U.S./P.R.C. leverage, other actors concerned with building a sustainable-consumption movement and with climatic stabilization are likely to benefit from devoting increased attention and responsibilities to this group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]