Pandas, Wildlife Conservation, China, Economics

New Scientist did an interview with Lü Zhi, the director of the Center for Nature and Society at Peking University, Beijing, China. She has studied pandas for two decades, served as the director of the World Wide Fund for Nature's panda conservation programme and runs the conservation NGO Shan Shui.

Are attitudes to the environment in China changing as people's wealth increases?

There are two trends. One is a greater awareness. For instance, a group of young Chinese entrepreneurs is calling for an end to the consumption of shark fin soup. But there is also a rise in the number of affluent people who want to show off their wealth. Eating wildlife is a part of Chinese culture, so when people get richer they eat more wildlife. They need something to persuade them. I think culture is the most effective tool. A respect for life is part of the Buddhist tradition, which has had a big influence on Chinese culture, though sometimes people forget it.

Is it weird that this is nearly exactly how I feel? I want the shark fin soup (yum) but I want the shark too. (I want to make a joke here that somehow combines the phrases "have your cake and eat it too" and "jumped the shark".) She also talks about the role of economics and markets in the future of conservation:

Is this new economic system in place?

In some provinces of China, GDP is not the only measure of development. The economic value of ecosystems, such as the carbon dioxide absorbance of forests, are factored in. At Shan Shui, the NGO I run, we want to show specific things that can be implemented, such as water users paying a proportion of their water-use fee to subsidise forest conservation upstream. It's a market-based attempt at conservation.

What comes next?

To work with economists. I recently went to a forum to brainstorm issues to be discussed at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. In one discussion there were 30 to 40 people focusing on the economy and me, with my focus on ecology. I looked out for how often they mentioned biodiversity or conservation. Neither term was mentioned. That was a reality check for me. I think the next step is to work with economists, otherwise we conservationists are just talking to ourselves.

I love this intersection between environment and economics. And China and international affairs too, I guess. Haha what a great article to send me. Thanks, fans!

Read the article here.