VZCZCXRO8744
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0195/01 0910918
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310918Z MAR 08
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7010
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI//J00/J2/J3/J5//

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