NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

“Maintaining a balance between environmental sustainability and the continuing process of urbanisation is a major issue facing the Chinese,” write the researchers.

Although much of China’s biodiversity is being threatened by rapid economic development and human activities, Tang Zhiyao and colleagues report the existence of ten biodiversity ’hotspots’ in mountain ranges that remain largely unaffected.

Protecting these mountainous areas is critical for conserving China’s biodiversity, they say.

China’s rapid economic growth is creating a historically unique, large-scale “experiment” in how to balance development and environmental protection, say Chinese researchers.

They say its outcome will be key to the sustainability of China’s growth, and will have unprecedented impacts around the world.

Writing in the September issue of Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, a special issue devoted to China’s environmental challenges, scientists describe the ecological consequences of rapid urbanisation, the state of biodiversity in mountainous regions, and pollution in coastal ’city clusters’.

Continue reading “China’s development ’experiment’ key to future growth”