Amid all the doom and gloom during the past week about the global loss of biodiversity, there have been a couple of potentially positive steps forward by the usual villain of the piece: China.
For the first time, the government in Beijing has put a hefty value on its forest ecosystems and began drafting new regulations that would oblige rich urban coastal regions to pay compensation fees to unspoiled inland areas that provide carbon sequestration and other environmental services.
These steps suggest China is moving in tandem with UN recommendations that environmental costs should be factored into the global economy.
A degree of skepticism is warranted. China has some of the world’s most enlightened environmental laws and policies, but all too often they are ignored by local officials and businesspeople who won’t let anything get in the way of making a fast yuan.
However, a marriage of the environment and the economy might provide a new set of financial incentives for maintaining eco-systems that would otherwise be seen merely as obstacles to development.
Serious money is involved. The State Forestry Administration estimated last week that forest ecosystems contribute 10 trillion yuan (US$1.46 trillion), or about a third of China’s GDP.
This figure — which takes into account carbon sequestration, water conservation, biodiversity protection and biomass production — suggests the administration is seeking not just a new set of values, but a new role for itself now the nation’s forests are logged out and 2,000 species reportedly threatened with extinction.
More intriguing still are reports that the government is drafting an ecological compensation scheme, which would expand and strengthen existing measures such as payment for wildlife reserves, environmental levies imposed on mines, compensation from upstream river polluters to downstream users and economic redistribution schemes that aim to close the income gap between manufacturing hubs on the east coast and rural hinterland.
Depending on how it is written and enforced, this could be either a boon or a menace to the environment. Set the value of conservation high and establish an effective mechanism for compensation transfers and this policy could help to correct the market’s failure to protect the commons and recognize the long-term value of biodiversity.
On the other hand, if the price of nature is set too low and regulation is too weak — both currently the case — then this policy could accelerate the unsustainable extraction of resources.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS