The Law stipulates that any institutions to breed or ranch bears or other protected wild animals must apply for the Permit of Breeding and Domesticating Protected Wild Animals and only qualified applicants may be accepted. In 1993, the Ministry of Forestry issued "An Urgent Notice on Checking up and Rectifying the Bear Farms". The Notice provides for the ban and closure of those bear farms that are not qualified under the Wildlife Protection Law of China and mistreat or torture bears. In July 1996, the Ministry of Forestry and CNMA held a Working Forum on Management of Bear Farms to sum up the management experience, to spread advanced technique on farming bears and bile collection, and also to direct the bear farms with inadequacy and ask them to improve their techniques and captive conditions within a limited time. After the Forum, the Ministry of Forestry issued "the Notice on Strengthening the Management and Administration of Bear Farms". The purpose of the Notice is to solidify the results of checking up and rectifying bear farms since 1993 and to strengthen the management and administration of bear farms further. The Notice asks the wildlife administrations at different levels to protect bears and administer bear farms strictly, to promote or force the improvement of captive conditions and technique of bile collection, to ban torturing and injuring bears, to check up and rectify bear farms and ban and close the unqualified bear farms, to standardize the operation technique of bile drainage and the bear breeding and ranching, to crack down on poaching bears and smuggling bear parts or products, and to ban advertising for bear products.

4) Discussions: Asiatic black bear are distributed widely in China. At present they can still be found in 26.5% of the territory of China although their ranges have been shrunk from north China and east China in history (Gao et al., 1987, Sun et al., 1992), fragmented in middle and south China and reduced in the north-east part of China in recent hundred years (Xu et al., 1992). In north-west and south-west parts of China bears survive safely in their suitable and continuous habitats. With low people population density, Qinghai-Xizang Plateau provides an suitable habitat for bears, and as well in the south-west mountainous regions of China, the population density of bears is still high. Although bears disappear or are threatened in some areas due to high people population density and long exploitation history, China still has enough habitats for bears in other areas. Of cause China should consider the measures to control the deterioration in some regions where bear habitats are being fragmented and the distribution ranges of bears reduced.

There was a guess on the population size of 20,000 for Asiatic black bear in China (Watkins, 1995). This number was based on the report of Ma (1994) and cited in many references. The field survey clears the facts that a total of 46,530 Asiatic black bears and 14,790 brown bears are considerable population sizes. The Asiatic black bear and brown bear are not endangered in China but they were listed as protected wildlife species in the Wildlife Protection Law of China in 1989 and strictly protected by the Law in order to respond to international protection of bears. Until to now there is a strong objection for the protection of Asiatic black bear in some mountainous regions in China.