中国 China
云南省 Yunnan Province 云南自然保护中心 YN conservation center
云南省地处中国西南部，与缅甸、老挝和越南接壤。它是中国最多姿多彩的省份，有着最丰富的物种和最多样的少数民族文化。在这儿不但有着世界上海拔最高、终年积雪的山峦，也有着热带气候地区，拥有异常丰富庞大的植被。夏季时，季风为青藏高原所阻隔，为当地带来丰沛的雨水。从而让这儿拥有其他地方所没有的种类繁多的高山植物。Yunnan Province is in southwest China and borders Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam. It is China's most diverse province, biologically and culturally. The province contains snow-capped mountains, some of the tallest in the world, and true tropical environments, thus supporting an unusually full spectrum of vegetation types. During summer, the Great Plateau of Tibet acts as a barrier to monsoon winds, trapping moisture in the province. This gives the alpine flora in particular what one source has called a "lushness found nowhere else."
云南省南部边疆地区有着热带湿润的气候，在那儿自然物种之多样超乎寻常且很多只为当地所有，“可能是全球温带地区植物种类最为丰富的地方。” 云南省拥有大约15000种高等植物，其中大约2500是当地独有的。此地也有着形形色色、各种各样的动物。云南省的面积与德国相当，占中国国土面积的4%，而这儿的植物、鸟类和哺乳动物的数量却几乎占了中国的一半。This topographic range combined with a tropical moisture along the southern border sustains extremely high biodiversity and high degrees of endemism, "likely the richest botanically in the world's temperate regions." Over 15,000 species of higher plants, of which perhaps 2,500 are endemic, can be found in the province. The fauna is nearly as diverse. Yunnan Province, an area the size of Germany, has less than 4% of the land of China, yet contains almost half of China's plants, birds and mammals.
“独特”一词已经用得太过频繁，但是云南省多样化自然物种及民族文化的多样化在全世界确实都堪称独树一帜。中国五十六个少数民族中有二十六个分布在云南省，其中包括傣族、壮族、布依族、彝族、白族、哈尼族、傈僳族、拉祜族、纳西族、景颇族、普米族、怒族、苗族、瑶族、佤族、藏族等。由此很难不让人觉得如此众多的少数民族聚集于此在某种程度上是源于分布在当地品类繁多且数量巨大的物种。同样的，云南省迅猛的发展也给他们带来了威胁。The word "unique" is greatly overused, but Yunnan Province has a legitimate claim that its combination of great natural biodiversity with great cultural diversity is unique in the world. Yunnan has 26 of China's 56 ethnic minority groups, including the Dai, Zhuang, Buyi, Yi, Bai, Hani, Lisu, Lahu, Naxi, Jingpo, Pumi, Nu, Miao, Yao, Wa, and Tibetan peoples. It is difficult not to feel that this great ethnic diversity springs in some way from the great biological diversity. It, too, is imperiled by the province's rapid development.
云南已经被指定为： Yunnan has been designated:
1）植物多样化中心 （世界自然保护联盟／世界自然基金会：戴维斯 等人 1995）"Center of Plant Diversity" (IUCN/WWF: Davis et al. 1995);
2）全球200个重点生态区域之一，要对其生物多样化提供保护（世界自然基金会：奥尔森和迪内尔斯坦 1998） "Global 200 List Priority Ecoregion" for biodiversity conservation (WWF: Olsen and Dinerstein 1998);
3）特种鸟类分布区 （国际鸟类联盟： 毕比,C 等人 1992） "Endemic Bird Area" (Birdlife International: Bibby, C. et al. 1992);
4）全球生物多样化热点地区，是横断山脉生态系统的一部分（国际保育组织：密特迈尔和密特迈尔 1997） "Global Biodiversity Hotspot,"as a part of the Hengdu Mountain Ecosystem (Conservation International: Mittermeier and Mittermeier 1997).
云南省的物种种类极其庞大，难以概述，如下我们列数了该省几个特别有代表性的地区。 The overall diversity of the province is so great that it is difficult to describe comprehensively, but these are some of the specific regions within the province.
* 河谷—物种疏散走廊 东北部始于印度马来亚低地区、西北部始于东亚低地区。这些河谷中分布着全球温带地区总量最多且种类丰富的特有物种。River valleys -- provide dispersal corridors northeast from the Indo-Malayan lowlands and northwest from the East Asian lowlands. These valleys have some of the highest overall levels of species endemism and richness in the world's temperate zone.
* 山脉 -- 从海拔6500米的冰川地带到深谷，其气候多变，从亚热带到高山气候都有，形成了广阔的植被分布区，有着极显著的多样化物种。 Mountain ranges -- with glaciated peaks of in excess of 6,500 m and deep gorges create a remarkable diversity of broad vegetation zones, subtropical to alpine. These provide dispersal corridors for upland flora and fauna southeast from the Tibetan Plateau and southwest from the Sichuan Highlands.
* 云南西北部 — 分布着整个亚洲地区最后的原始森林。这些森林被中国林业部类为A级保护区。 Northwest Yunnan -- contains some of the last remaining primary forests in all of Asia. These forests were listed as "Priority A" for conservation by China's Ministry of Forestry.
* 热带云南 — 与越南、老挝和缅甸接壤，云南省最南部属于真正的热带地区，但是很不幸的是现在很多地区种上了橡胶树，尽管还有大量的自然保护区存在。大象在一千多年前曾分布于中国各地，但是现在仅存于云南西双版纳自治区。许多植物交错分布于这三个毗邻的国度。 Tropical Yunnan -- bordering Vietnam, Laos and Burma, Yunnan's southernmost reaches are true tropical areas, much altered unfortunately to grow rubber trees, though substantial preserves exist. Elephants once, millenia past, roamed much of China, but the few that remain today are in Yunnan's Xischuangbanna prefecture. Many plants are shared with the three neighboring countries.
云南有着绚烂、多彩的历史，而在这其中很不幸也包括自然环境所遭受的灾难性的历史。很久以前云南处于华夏帝国的边缘地带（帝国集权中心在中国东北部），此处聚居的人口都是汉文化以外的少数民族，他们与东南亚地区以及跨越西藏的中亚地区联系紧密，该地一直在抵抗来自遥远地区的汉族政权的统治。当1644年满族征服并统治了华夏帝国后，他们把当时为满族打开山海关的汉族将领派至云南，而打开山海关此举导致了最后一个汉族王朝—明朝的灭亡。他统治着云南地区，但是数年之后却又反叛了满族政权，带兵攻打北京。在近现代史上，第二次世界大战时，云南是著名的飞虎队及其接班人第十四空军的驻地，从印度飞跃喜马拉雅山脉（又称“驼峰”）至云南的航线是当时中国军队补给的生命线。而在更近期的历史中，环绕着昆明市的中国著名的第八大湖泊-滇池，当时为增加大米产量，其湿地遭到严重毁坏。围湖造田的举措不幸失败，而后果是造成当地水质自然过滤功能被完全破坏。在该省的南部地区，大面积种植橡胶树造成热带雨林被砍伐。Yunnan's history is no less variegated and fascinating, some of that history, unfortunately, involving environmental catastrophes. Long at the fringe of the empires ruled from China's northeast, peopled by non-Han cultures, linked to SE Asia and, through Tibet, to Central Asia, the area resisted rule from afar. When the Manchus conquered China in 1644, they sent to Yunnan the general who had opened the northern gates to them, an act which led to the fall of the last Chinese dynasty, the Ming. He asserted control, but ended up years later leading his own revolt against Beijing. The saying here is that "The mountains are high, and Beijing is far away." In more recent times, during WW2, Yunnan was the home of the famous Flying Tigers and its successor the 14th Air Force, life line to Chinese armies in supplies flown from India over the Himalayas ("the Hump"). In still more recent times came the destruction of the marshes surrounding Kunming's famous lake, the eighth largest in China, in an attempt to greatly increase rice production. The effort failed miserably and also resulted in elimination of the natural filters ensuring water quality. Further south in the province came an effort to increase rubber production at the expense of rainforest.
现在我们在云南成立云南自然遗产保护决策中心，希望能够挽救这一重要省份依然还存在的多样化的物种。Now we are building the Yunnan Natural Heritage Conservation Decision Center, YN-NHCDC, in an attempt to help save the biodiversity that is left in this important province.
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中亚地区：乌兹别克斯坦 Central Asia: Uzbekistan
乌兹别克斯坦及其前身地处同一地域，自古以来就通过丝绸之路和中国有所往来。跨越丝绸之路的旅行漫长而艰苦，要穿越无尽的沙漠和世界上最艰险的山脉。当时的人们（和骆驼）成功地跨越了丝绸之路，然而同样到达彼端的还有很多不同的物种。乌兹别克斯坦比起中国要小很多，甚至比中国很多省份都要小，而在物种方面也同样无法与中国相比。但是两国还是拥有差不多一千多种同类的物种。Uzbekistan, and its predecessors occupying the same territory, has since ancient times been linked with China by the Silk Road. Journeys along that road were long and difficult, through endless deserts and over world champion mountains. People (and camels) made the journey successfully, however, and so did a number of elements of biodiversity. Uzbekistan is a much smaller country than China, not even as large as many of the Chinese provinces, and biologically its diversity is not nearly so great. But the two countries share a perhaps a thousand species.
除了在其东部的狭长地带，乌兹别克斯坦的生态系统基本上是沙漠，且还在继续扩大，由于其过去最大的水源，咸海（其实它是一个淡水湖）因为浇灌棉花田而基本上消失了。克孜勒库木沙漠为重重山脉所隔断，其中之一是比美国和加拿大的落基山脉还要高的阿迪隆加托吉山。Except in the narrow eastern extension of the country, Uzbekistan is basically a desert ecosystem, indeed increasingly so as its once great water source, the Aral Sea (in fact a freshwater lake), has almost vanished due to the irrigation of cotton fields. This desert, the Kyrzl Kum, is broken only by mountains, one of which, the Khazret Sultan, is somewhat taller than the tallest mountains in the Rocky Mountains chain of the US and Canada.
沙漠地区的生态系统，当然缺乏像更为湿润地区的生态系统所有的多样的物种，但是那里能够适应如此严酷生存环境的动植物却非常重要，特别是那些珍稀品种。乌兹别克斯坦出版了现代植物区系，是一套应植物学家之需汇编的一套书籍，其中详细记录了该国生长的各种植物。Desert ecoystems, of course, lack the biodiversity of wetter ecosystems, but the plants and animals that are able to adapt to such a harsh environment are of great interest, particularly the rarer ones. Uzbekistan has produced a modern flora, a series of volumes describing the country's plants in the detail required by botanists.
1997年按照该国总统的指示撰写了“乌兹别克斯坦正要迈入21世纪”的报告，其中有一章为“生态保护的挑战”，里面的内容对于任何一个关心环保的人而言都太过沉重，但好的一面是它罗列了当前所面临的困境。这一章开篇就点出在乌兹别克斯坦还是苏联的一部分时（二十世纪的大部分时期），环境生态问题从未被重视：A report prepared under the direction of the country's president in 1997, "Uzbekistan on the Threshold of the Twenty-First Century" contains a chapter on "Ecological Challenges" that is difficult for anyone interested in conservation to read, so great is its listing of devastations. The chapter begins by noting that when the country was part of the Soviet Union (for most of the 20th century), no serious consideration was given to ecological issues:
生态学曾经被贬低为只有对此有兴趣的研究者才会从事研究的学科，又或是那些关心他们国家之未来以及想要保护其大自然所赋予的财富的那些人士“发自内心的呼喊”。Ecology was relegated to a subject for study by self-motivated researchers, or it was a 'cry fron the heart' of individuals worried about their country's future and the preservation of its natural wealth.
然而这些人”所遭遇到的只是冰冷的，甚至备受讥讽的冷漠态度“和对自然“掠夺性的开采”，其所带来的结果是森林被砍伐、工业污染问题无人关注还有在进行建筑施工时完全不考虑对周围生态环境可能造成的后果。咸海的干涸只不过是在此书中列举出的众多灾难之一。But all these people "encountered a cold, even cynical indifference" and "predatory exploitation," with the result that forests were cut, no attention was paid to industrial pollution, and construction projects took no note of ecological consequences. The drying up of the Aral Sea is only one of many catastrophes outlined in the book.
文章的结尾指出，The chapter ends with the statement that
如今的重中之重是引进外来资金帮助乌兹别克斯坦改善其生态环境。A task of paramount importance is to attract international financial resources to help us meet our ecological needs.
显而易见的是，如果真的吸引到了国外的援助资金，第一要务是需评估哪些是现存的物种、哪些是高危物种以及这些不同的物种确切分布地在哪儿。生物多样化保护组织已经建立了一套数据系统，且已有俄语版，当国际援助资金到位时它就可以被马上投入使用。
It is clear that if these financial resources ever do materialize, the first thing that will be needed is a conservation assessment of what remains, what is most imperiled, and where exactly these elements of biodiversity occur on the landscape. BDC has created a data system, in Russian, that can and will be used for this purpose once those international financial resources appear.
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