LIMITS ON RESEARCH CAPACITY FOR SOUTH CHINA'S AQUATIC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000195 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM AND OES/PCI EPA FOR OFFICE OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV ECON TBIO CH SUBJECT: LIMITS ON RESEARCH CAPACITY FOR SOUTH CHINA'S AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS ¶1. (SBU) Summary: For south China, evaluating the severity of pollution in its various aquatic ecosystems is a daunting task made more difficult by internal factors such as excessive bureaucracy and territorial attitudes among researchers. Agencies, institutions, and even individual researchers generally view their data as valuable "property," which they are often unwilling to share with other scientists. Rigid bureaucratic jurisdictions make it difficult and sometimes impossible for scientists to study conditions in areas that fall outside their normal area of authority. There is a lack of large-scale, long-term studies and datasets, such as comprehensive data on contaminants or catalogues of the species that live in the region's aquatic ecosystems. In addition, environmental agencies and academic institutions face a shortage of qualified toxicologists and trained risk assessors. More publication of scientific studies in English would also improve cooperation with researchers and institutions outside China. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) Environmental scientists and regulators in south China face many challenges, some of their own making, in monitoring, researching and assessing the region's riverine and coastal aquatic ecosystems. Through meetings with researchers and officials at two state environmental and aquatic science research laboratories, the Guangdong Center for Disease Control and a leading university research institute specializing in assessing harmful algae and aquatic ecosystems, ConGen's EPA science fellow identified several obstacles impeding the development of south China's environmental research capacity. Show Me the Money! -------------- ¶3. (SBU) In China, the idea that research data should be exchanged freely among scientists and agencies is not widely accepted. One internationally-renown researcher in aquatic pollutants told us that one of the reasons he prefers to do research in Guangdong is because he has friends here who are willing to share their research data without requiring monetary compensation. He claimed that such exchanges would be impossible for him in other parts of China where he lacks personal connections. Because data are not usually shared outside one's own laboratory, agency, or institution, environmental scientists frequently have to generate their own research data internally and from scratch. This results in wasteful, time-consuming duplication of effort and makes it more difficult to assess problems and changes in large-scale ecosystems. Contaminants Go with the Flow, Bureaucracies Do Not -------------- -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Not only do researchers and regulators refuse to share access to their data, sometimes they refuse to share access to the environment itself. Pollutants in the Chinese aquatic environment, like everywhere else in the world, do not recognize political boundaries. But in China, tracking or assessing pollutants can often be beset with jurisdictional obstacles. It is difficult to obtain permission to sample areas outside one's administrative authority without first seeking approval through several layers of bureaucracy. In some cases, permission is denied entirely. Many scientific institutions have these types of geographic areas of authority just as government agencies each have their own jurisdiction. Lacking the Big Pictures -------------- ¶5. (SBU) When China awards funding for scientific research on environmental pollution, it too often gives stipends to a large number of individual scientists who pursue their own independent research with little coordination. This can lead to excessive fragmentation of research and impede efforts to identify the greatest environmental problems and track changes. ¶6. (SBU) These factors frustrate efforts to design and conduct large-scale, comprehensive environmental monitoring studies of very large and complex aquatic ecosystems like the Pearl River Delta and its South China Sea interface. For example, south China lacks comprehensive, reliable databases on contaminants and their effects over large areas. China has water quality standards and regulations designed to prohibit discharges of contaminants, such as factory waste, into rivers; but depending on the area involved, the enforcement of these regulations is often spotty and fraught with GUANGZHOU 00000195 002 OF 002 corruption. Designing and conducting consistent and accurate monitoring programs for water, sediment, fish, and other components of the aquatic environment could provide critical reference points to assess enforcement of local regulations and gauge whether those regulations are adequate. ¶7. (SBU) In addition, several leading environmental scientists in south China have suggested that China needs more comprehensive assessments of large scale pollution-related phenomena using modern remote sensing tools and techniques such as Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Programs (EMAP). (Note: EMAP is used extensively by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to characterize and track pollution-related changes in large aquatic ecosystems, like the Pacific Coast, and the Columbia River Basin. End note.) Local scientists have told us they would like to see this kind of program for phenomena such as eutrophication, harmful algal blooms, major point sources, sewage outfalls, factory inputs, dredging, aquaculture, agriculture, mining, and oil spills, etc. They also recommend a national EMAP initiative for China, and believe assistance from the U.S. EPA would be helpful in this effort. ¶8. (U) China with its rich biodiversity and rapid economic growth is especially vulnerable to invasive species and the decline of native species. Research on environmental degradation and competition from invasive species is still relatively new here. The Pearl River Delta and South China Sea regions, in particular, have few up-to-date scholarly accounts identifying and tracking either endemic, or introduced species of freshwater or marine organisms. Local scientists have told us that studying taxonomy is currently unpopular among graduate students, who do not see it as profitable or a means to gain status. However, without information on how the aquatic ecosystem is changing over time, it is difficult to assess environmental impacts of pollutants and the effectiveness of enforcement efforts. Lacking Human Capital Too -------------- ¶9. (U) South China has few qualified and experienced toxicologists and risk assessors able to evaluate impacts of environmental pollutants on health and environment. Fortunately, increasing numbers of China's leading environmental scientists participate in international scientific bodies, such as SETAC (Society for Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry). However, the 2007 list of membership of the Society of Toxicology, the largest scientific body of professional toxicologists in the world, includes only 16 toxicologists from China (Japan has about 116). The American Board of Toxicology, recognized as the leading international certifying body for professional toxicologists, currently has no Chinese members certified as Diplomates (DABT). Japan has 11, Korea 4, India and Taiwan 2 each, and Singapore has 1. ¶10. (SBU) In addition to toxicologists, Guangdong and the PRD region lack trained risk assessors. This lack of capacity challenges local government efforts to use risk assessment as a basis for regulatory decisions that impact human health and ecosystem integrity. Chinese Universities are not yet producing graduates qualified to meet this shortage and need to further develop curricula in this area. According to the Guangdong CDC, Chinese biomedical and environmental health-related agencies are in great need of more risk assessment training for their physicians, public health scientists, and other professional staff. Our contacts identified this as another area where assistance from U.S. agencies such as EPA or U.S. academic institutions with expertise in toxicology and risk assessment could be beneficial. Publishing in English -------------- ¶11. (SBU) Chinese scientists also face barriers in cooperating with international counterparts because too little Chinese environmental research and data is published in English and made available outside China. More publication in English would increase foreign interest in China's environment, foster stronger relationships with foreign scientists and environmental agencies and facilitate more funding partnerships. GOLDBERG