Welcoming Address Meng Sha Deputy Director General, Ministry of Forestry The People's Republic of China

Honorable Chairman, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Today, the IWMC World Conservation Trust 2^nd Symposium on the Sustainable Use of Wildlife is now opening up, which represents an event of great significance in the global conservation community. First of all, please allow me, on behalf of the State Forestry Administration and the CITES Management Authority of China to express my warmest congratulations on this event and welcome you all from various States and organizations. I also wish to express my sincere thanks and highest appreciation to those from IWMC, MKI and the Program Committee of this Symposium for their great efforts and effective contributions to the organizing of this conference. The Government, Forestry Department of Sichuan province and Jin Jiang Hotel of Chengdu should also be appreciated for the assistance they provide.

As we know, wildlife is resulted by the millions of years evolution of life, which builds up the substantial foundation of human's survive and development, and also presents an invaluable prosperous prospect for the human beings with its ecological, economic and social benefits as well as its undiscovered potentials. However, due to the worldwide dramatically increasing populations and unwise uses, wildlife has been and is being over-exploited, which ruins various species and ecosystems on the earth. Fortunately, more and more concerns had been brought out upon this tragic accident. Sustainable Development was advocated by the Earth Summit in 1992 as the global strategy for human being's development, which is a memorable milestone in human's history and reflects the common wishes and positions by the international societies in conserving and wisely using the resources of wild fauna and flora.

As a traditional developing country with a population as 1/5 as that of the world, China has been always paid much attentions to conserve and wisely use the wildlife. Great efforts have been undertaken with remarkable performances gained in the fields of artificial breeding and propagation, traditional medicine development, nature reserve establishment and trade control of wildlife. China had acceded to various conservation facilities such as CITES, Ramsar, CBD and IUCN, and has been tried its best to fulfill the obligations designated thereby. The National Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan had been developed; hopefully the National Wetlands Conservation Action Plan could be drafted and consequently submitted to the State Council for endorsement. To protect its abundant biodiversity, China has established more than one thousand nature reserves covering an area of more than 7 per cent of its territory, and developed cooperation with WWF, WI, IUCN, as well as some other countries. Financial and technical aids have been also introduced from Global Environment Facility (GEF) to improve the management of nature reserves and wetlands in China. As in situ conservation can not solve all the problems in the recovery of the populations, based on its long and successful experience, artificial breeding and propagation are believed and developed in China as important alternative options to reduce the pressures upon the wild populations and to promote the industrialization of the wildlife resources. In the past years, a great amount of endangered species, such as wild horse, David's deer, Chinese alligator etc. have been effectively protected in China. Propagation and captive breeding of the species of significant economic and medicinal values have been carried out widely and successfully, which has secured the development and extension of the traditional Chinese medicines in its history of at least three thousand years, and further contributed to the health of people all around the world.

China acceded to CITES in 1981 and designated the Administration of Endangered Species Import and Export, the Scientific Committee of Endangered Species as the national Management Authority and Scientific Authority respectively. Since then, various efforts have been undertaken in institution and capacity building, legislation and enforcement, stocks and markets surveys, public awareness promotion. Now, the Management Authority has a national-wide institutional network through out the country, consisting of one headquarters with 30 permanent staffs in Beijing and 17 branches with 100 permanent staffs in other cities. To standardize the control on international trades in wild fauna and flora, the Harmonized Coding System on the Imported and Exported Items of Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was ratified jointly by the Management Authority and the State Customs Administration. This system covers all the items of both CITES and national legislation listed species for which the permit issued by the Management Authority is required in its international trade. International cooperation has been always conducted by China as a priority in its implementation of CITES. Workshop on Control of International Trade in Endangered Species in Asia, Workshop on Conservation of and Trade Control in Tibetan Antelope were respectively held in 1995 and this year in China, which resulted in the Beijing Statement and Xining Declaration. Just a few days ago, we convened a training workshop on enforcement of CITES in Beihai city with the presence of 60 participates from CITES branch offices, local customs, police agencies, medicinal institutions and provincial wildlife authorities. What I have mentioned above is too far from all the efforts we have undertaken, but each initiative has its own specific objective for conservation and as a whole has contributed a lot to the salvation of the wildlife that is becoming more and more precious to us and the future generations.

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:

As a brand new millennium is coming, to protect and wisely use the wildlife resources on this planet turns into an inevitable realistic challenge to us, especially to those from the developing countries. To overcome this challenge, the improved mutual understanding and respect, promoted cooperation and coordination, common wishes and harmonious activities to a certain extent is appealed. Fortunately, Mr. Eugene Lapointe and his organization, IWMC World Conservation Trust here with the help of the Chinese Government generously offer us an opportunity and access to above objectives. I do wish all of us could cherish this opportunity and do what we are able to for the conservation of wildlife and development of human being itself!

I wish you a pleasant stay in China, enjoy it, and also may you all the best at your destinations! �