China losing biodiversity “at a frightening rate”

Land in Beijing, mind at one in the morning, the rest of the world at 7, get to the waiting lounge, discover free wireless, scan internets, discover — hold the front page — that China is losing biodiversity extremely rapidly. A thoughtful piece in the Asia Times uses the demise of the Yangtze River Dolphin to take quite a detailed look at why conservation does not seem to get any traction here. Turf wars between ministries seem to be the prime reason. There’s little talk of agriculture (I know, we sound like a cracked record ((An early form of sound storage prone to defects, for our younger readers)) on this) aside from a very brief mention of ecosystem services. The fact is, China’s agriculture is among the oldest in the world, and the menu must be among the most diverse, but all the indications are that they are no longer growing the diversity they used to and that they are eating much of the animal diversity into extinction.

I’m on my way to Kunming, to see at first hand some exciting projects that make use of agricultural biodiversity to improve livelihoods. If connectivity there is as good and easy as it is here, and if I have the time, I’ll be sure to report here.