“I am of two minds. If you feel there is a need to make something new, that means you are not happy with what exists. There is an international organization for protected areas. Maybe we’d better look at how we could improve that before having a new one,” said Dr John Mackinnon, a senior biodiversity expert and honorary professor at the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology at the University of Kent, UK.

“I don’t want to see a competition between any new alliance and the existing Mackinnon, who said he is undecided, cited IUCN’s weak presence in China. “They are not really participating in that very much. They have a very small office in Beijing and they don’t offer a lot. So maybe China wants to do something else, but they want to do it big and do it globally as well,” he said.

Xie Yan said existing protection systems, including the IUCN’s World Commission of Protected Areas, are top-down structures that are academic in nature and function as brain trusts. “The proposed alliance could focus on governance of protected areas and act as a hands-on implementer. It still needs the intellectual support of existing organizations, but at the same time could facilitate better implementation at the local level,” she said.

“My biggest concern is that we have a very fancy talk here and end up nowhere if the program is overstretched,” said Wang Ding, secretary general of the Chinese National Committee for Man and Biosphere (MAB) Program, a member of UNESCO’s World Network of Biosphere Reserves.

“I suggest that a secretariat be established within the Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve with clear-cut financial guarantees to prepare for the establishment of the alliance. In the beginning, it would be better to zero in on a specific focus, such as a sub-alliance for protected mountain regions, otherwise it runs the risk of being short-lived,” said Wang.

Professor Chung-II Choi, former Chair of the UNESCO/MAB Program International Coordinating Council Committee, said he had high hopes that the alliance would be successful, suggesting that Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve should first establish alliances with neighboring countries, such as Mongolia, Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan, and then possibly expand the alliance to South Asia.

“Finance will be a major problem but there are many solutions. Membership, contributions and government support can be used to guarantee the program’s finances,” said Choi.

The Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve initiative as a good starting point to beef up local management of protected areas, said Dr Natarajan Ishwaran, visiting professor with the International Center on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage under the auspices of UNESCO,

“Local rules and regulations within the framework of national and international laws and their effective enforcement are critical to the conservation of protected areas. Local government engagement and support are indispensable for success,” he said.

Treasure of East Asia

“Changbai Mountain is a treasure of East Asia. It hasn’t been changed much by human activities, therefore we may keep it as a starting point for conservation and expand gradually,” said Choi.