Ecosystem Profile for the Lancang watershed Submitted by Shanshui Conservation Center Drafted by Lei GU, Fangyi YANG, Shan SUN, Ruijuan QI 20 March 2013 1 Content 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 3 2. Biological importance of the Lancang watershed ..................................................................... 4 2.1 Ecology, Climate, Geography, Geology ........................................................................ 5 2.2 Species Diversity ......................................................................................................... 12 2.3 The Protected Area system in the Lancang Watershed................................................ 19 2.4 The Ecosystem Services of the Lancang Watershed ................................................... 24 3. Socioeconomic Context of the Lancang Watershed ................................................................ 27 3.1 Population and Urbanization ....................................................................................... 27 3.2 Society ......................................................................................................................... 29 3.3 Economy ..................................................................................................................... 30 4 An Overview of Current Threats and Their Causes ................................................................ 35 4.1 An Overview of Impacts and Threats ......................................................................... 35 4.2 Root Causes................................................................................................................. 44 5 Climate Change Assessment in the Lancang watershed ......................................................... 48 5.1 The observational facts and future trend of Climate Change ...................................... 49 5.2 Potential impact of Climate Change............................................................................ 49 5.3 Mitigation measures planned in Qinghai and Yunnan ................................................. 50 5.4 The adaptation measures in Qinghai and Yunnan ....................................................... 52 5.5 Conclusion and Suggestion ......................................................................................... 53 6 Policies on Development and Protection of the Lancang Watershed ...................................... 53 7 Civil Society ............................................................................................................................ 54 7.1 Background on China’s civil society ........................................................................... 64 7.2 Environment Movement and Green NGOs ................................................................. 64 7.3 Overview of NGO work on Lancang/Mekong conservation ...................................... 68 7.4 Gaps of CSO actions ................................................................................................... 71 7.5 Foundations and Philanthropy ..................................................................................... 72 7.6 Government Purchase of NGOs' Services ................................................................... 74 7.7 Working with Media ................................................................................................... 74 8 Assessment of current conservation Investment ..................................................................... 74 8.1 Government Funding .................................................................................................. 75 8.2 International aid and Funding ..................................................................................... 78 8.3 Civil Society Funding ................................................................................................. 79 8.4 Corporate Funding ...................................................................................................... 80 8.5 Conclusions and Suggestion ....................................................................................... 81 9 Investment Strategy and program focus in Lancang watershed .............................................. 82 9.1 The Feasibility of investment ...................................................................................... 82 9.2 Niches for MacArthur’s Investment ............................................................................ 84 9.3 Priority Species and Site for investment ..................................................................... 85 9.4 The Strategy and Priority Actions of MacArthur Foundation’s Investment ................ 97 10 Sustainability ..................................................................................................................... 103 Reference ...................................................................................................................................... 104 Appendix ....................................................................................................................................... 108 2 1. Introduction The Mekong-Lancang River is one of the most important transnational rivers in Asia. It is the 10th longest river in the world and the 7th longest in Asia. The Mekong – Lancang River flows north to south through six nations, China, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. The lower half of the river is known as Mekong River1, the upper half flows through China, where it is known the Lancang River. The Mekong-Lancang River flows across a wide diversity of ecosystems and habitats. Two of the world's biodiversity hotspots2 of Indo-Burma Hotspot and the mountains of Southwest China hotspot located within the river basin. Furthermore, the area of Mekong–Lancang watershed that located in the overlap area of these two hotspots which provided highest species richness. The rich biodiversity of these ecosystems provides various services for around 70 million people who reside in the watershed area, including a supply of freshwater, food and nutrients and a key factor in regulating the climate. In recent decades, the biodiversity and ecosystem services deteriorating rapidly because of overexploitation of natural resources and climate change. In order to reduce current rates of biodiversity and natural habitat loss and sustain the ecosystem services that underpin human well-being in the Greater Mekong basin, the MacArthur Foundation launched its 10 years biodiversity conservation program to mainstream biodiversity conservation and integrate ecological protection with economic development through cooperation with the government, civil society and businesses. The MacArthur Foundation is trying to effectively implement direct conservation actions in the highest priority sites and landscapes by deepen the understanding of the benefits provided to the economies and people of the region by the biodiversity and natural habitats of the Mekong River Basin and expanding incentives to conserve them. The conservation goals include reducing pressures high biodiversity landscapes and slowing current trends of degradation Figure 1: The overview of the Greater Mekong basin 1 We will use the Mekong-Lancang river for the entire watershed including the Lancang river and the Mekong river. 2 Biodiversity hotspot is bio-geographic region with a significant reservoir of biodiversity that is under threat from humans. 3 and ecosystem service loss, and eventually reverse them. Shanshui Conservation Center was invited by the MacArthur Foundation to develop an ecosystem profile for the Lancang watershed in 2011. The ecosystem profile will assess the status of biodiversity and ecosystem services and identify the threats and opportunities facing by the Lancang watershed. Based on scientific and systematical analysis, conservation actions can be done by civil society will be recommended for the MacArthur Foundation. Simultaneously, we expect the drafting of the ecosystem profile for the Lancang river basin will help to leverage more supports from the government and business to establish alliance for basin-wide biodiversity conservation. Shanshui Conservation Center partnered with Yunnan Green Environment and Development Foundation, Yunnan Forestry Academy and Hengduan Mountains association reviewed the factors including biodiversity baseline, threats, policy, main actors and the status of civil society in the Lancang River Basin. And formulate the investment strategies from the perspectives of scientific decision making support, on-site best practices, engagement of the civil society and communication. The detailed actions also recommended. In June-July 2012, Shanshui Conservation Centre and partners held consultation meeting in Kunming and Xining respectively, 70 participants attended consultation meeting (Appendix 1). The outcomes from the meeting are the other sources of Ecosystem Profile. In addition to the literature review and consultation meeting, face-to-face interview with different stakeholders also provided important information for drafting of the Ecosystem Profile. It should be emphasized here is that Lancang River Basin also includes the Qamdo regions of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR). The current understanding of biodiversity of Qamdo prefecture is quite insufficient, and there are few conservationists in Qamdo to query. Moreover, it is hard to get access to Qamdo