Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Development Projects in Chongqing

Guidelines for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Five Development Projects in Chongqing, China

2011 Feb

EU­China Biodiversity Programm ­ Chongqing Field Project

Guidelines for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Five Development Projects in Chongqing, China Contents Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Hydroelectric Development Projects ……………...1 Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Regional Development and Planning EIA ……………........39 Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Tourism Development Projects ……......................65 Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of linear Projects……………………….....................105 Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Mining Development Projects………....................137

Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Hydroelectric Development Projects

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Contents 1 General Principles......................................................................................................................................4 1.1 Compilation Purpose.............................................................................................................................4 1.2 Applicable Scope ..................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Evaluation Principles ............................................................................................................................4 1.4 Scope of Assessment Work ...................................................................................................................4 1.5 Contents of Assessment Work...............................................................................................................4 1.6 Basis for Identification of Ecological Impacts......................................................................................5 1.7 Ranks of Assessment Work...................................................................................................................5 2 Normative References................................................................................................................................7 3 Terms and Definitions................................................................................................................................8 4 Project Overview and Engineering Analysis .........................................................................................10 4.1 Project Overview ................................................................................................................................10 4.2 Engineering Analysis of Projects ........................................................................................................10 4.2.1 Requirements on engineering analysis.........................................................................................10 4.2.2 Analysis on Impact Sources .........................................................................................................10 4.2.3 Contents of Engineering Analysis................................................................................................11 4.3 Focuses of Survey and Analysis .........................................................................................................11 5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity ............................................................12 5.1 Survey on the current status of biodiversity........................................................................................12 5.1.1 requirements for surveys on the current status of biodiversity ....................................................12 5.1.2 Contents of survey on the current status of biodiversity..............................................................12 5. 2 Assessment on ecological current status ............................................................................................12 5.2.1 Requirements for assessment on the current status of biodiversity .............................................12 5.2.2 Contents of assessment on the current status of biodiversity.......................................................12 6 Prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts ......................................................................................14 6.1 Principles for the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts .......................................................14 6.2 Scope of the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts ...............................................................14 6.3 Contents of the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts ..........................................................14 6.4 Methods for the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts .........................................................14 7 Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration...........................................................................................16 7.1 Principles and requirements................................................................................................................16 7.2 Prevention and restoration measures against ecological impacts........................................................16 8 Biodiversity monitoring and management ............................................................................................18 8.1 biodiversity monitoring.......................................................................................................................18 8.2 Biodiversity conservation and management .......................................................................................18

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9 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation and cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts .........................................................................................................................................................20 9.1 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation ......................................................................20 9.2 Cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts ....................................................................................20 10 Public involvements ...............................................................................................................................21 11 Conclusions .............................................................................................................................................22 Appendix A (normative references) Classification of sensitive ecological areas....................................23 Appendix B (documentary appendix) Survey Methods for the Current Status of Biodiversity and Ecological Environment .............................................................................................................................24 Appendix C (documentary appendix) Monitoring methods for major biological groups ....................25 Appendix D (normative appendix) Specifications and requirements on diagrams for biodiversity impacts assessment .....................................................................................................................................27 Appendix E (documentary appendix) Recommended methods forprediction assessment of biodiversity impact .....................................................................................................................................29 Appendix F (documentary appendix) Recommended assessment method for river habitat................31 Appendix G (documentary appendix) Recommended assessment method for ecological water consumption within river channel .............................................................................................................32 Appendix H (documentary appendix) Recommended rapid assessment method for river habitat ....34

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1 General Principles 1.1 Compilation Purpose By defining standards, principles, contents and methods of assessment, and unifying technological requirements, this Guideline is compiled to regulate biodiversity impact assessments (hereinafter referred to as BIA) in the development of hydroelectric projects.

1.2 Applicable Scope This Guideline is applicable for BIA in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of small and medium hydroelectric engineering projects, diversion type and dam­toe hydropower stations in southwestern mountainous areas in particular. This Guideline can also be applied as reference for similar projects of other industries.

1.3 Evaluation Principles Stick to the principle of attaching balanced importance to both key points and overall aspects. Focuses should be given to important areas, critical timing, dominant ecological elements and critically protected wildlife involved in the project to be assessed, while the structural and functional integrity of ecosystem and biodiversity in different time and space range should be maintained.

Adhere to the principle of adopting both preventative and recovery measures. Take preventative measures as the major methodology, and recovery compensation measures as assisting methodology.

Adhere to the principle of applying both quantitative analyzing methodology and qualitative analysis methodology. Quantitative methods should be adopted for survey and analysis in the evaluation of ecological impact. When the current scientific methods cannot meet the needs of quantitative analysis, or quantitative analysis is not applicable due to other reasons, then qualitative and analogy methodology can be applied for description and analysis in the evaluation of ecological impacts.

1.4 Scope of Assessment Work The BIA of hydroelectric engineering project should fully reflect the integrity of ecology, containing all the direct and indirect impacted areas of assessed projects. The scope of assessment work is decided by the way and degree that ecological elements are impacted, and by mutual influences and dependence between those ecological elements.

The major assessment areas of BIA for hydroelectric engineering projects include construction area of dams, inundated areas, resettlement areas, water source areas, areas along water intake tunnel or cannel, upstream and downstream river sections of the projects, lakes, wetlands, estuaries etc.

1.5 Contents of Assessment Work Contents of BIA for hydroelectric projects mainly include: Project overview; Engineering analysis of the project; Survey on the current status of biodiversity; Identification of biodiversity impacts;

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Prediction assessment of the biodiversity; impact Biodiversity conservation measures; Biodiversity monitoring and management; Public involvement in biodiversity conservation; Evaluation results etc.

Whenever there is large impact on the catchment area where the hydroelectric project is located, the impacts of the construction project to ecological environment and biodiversity should be analyzed.

1.6 Basis for Identification of Ecological Impacts The basis for identification of ecological impacts mainly includes the following aspects: Objectives, measures and requirements concerning ecology, environment and resources stipulated in the laws, regulations, policies, plans and zoning plans enacted nationally, industrially and locally; Ecological effects identified through scientific studies and researches, or the results of practical ecological monitoring and simulation; The ecological background value or baseline value of the area or similar areas where the project is located; Analogical comparison with existing similar projects in terms of quality, scale and ecological sensitivity of the areas; Consult comments of experts in related fields, management authorities, and general public.

1.7 Ranks of Assessment Work According to the ecological sensitivity and the of hydroelectric project impacted areas, the assessment of ecological impact is classified into three ranks: I, II and III (see table 1).

Whenever critical ecologically sensitive areas are involved, assessment work I should be conducted; assessment work II will be performed in circumstances that no irreversible ecological impacts occur, or ecological functions can be recovered through human endeavor, or the restricted ecological impacts will not cause damages to the major ecological functions within the project area; for those projects that have no harms to ecosystems or have little ecological impacts, assessment work III can be applied.

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Table 1 Rank and Requirements of Ecological Impact Assessment for Hydroelectric Projects Assessment Ranks 2 Ecological sensitivity Size >30 km 2 or length Size 10 ～ 30 km 2 or Size <10 km or length of the impacted area >50 km <30 km length 30­50 km Critical I I I important I II II General II III III Table 2 Reference Standards for Classification of Ecological Sensitivity Ecological process or elements

critical

Yangtze River, Jialing River, Wujiang River, Waterway layout and other primary rivers, river courses and riverside buffer zone.

Protection of aquatic Important ecosystem wetland

Biological protection

general

The third and fourth level of waterways within the area, large lakes, reservoirs and surrounding areas within the area.

Other waterways and average lakes and reservoirs.

Protected wetlands of Average wetlands great significance

Water source conservation

Critically important area for water source conservation

Important and medium important areas for water source conservation.

Biodiversity

Critically important areas for biodiversity

Medium important areas for biodiversity

Sensitive habitats

Critically sensitive habitats

Vegetation coverage

High vegetation coverage

Highly sensitive habitats Medium vegetation coverage

Land coverage types Soil erosion

Soil conservation

Protected important wetlands in critical areas.

important

desertification

Soil conservation

Rivers, lakes, broadleaf Meadow, shrub and forests and coniferous coppice wood forests Highly and medium Critically sensitive area sensitive area for soil for soil erosion erosion Highly and medium Critically sensitive area sensitive area for for desertification desertification Important and Critically important medium important area for soil area for soil conservation conservation

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Commonly important areas for water source conservation.

Relatively important areas for biodiversity Medium sensitive habitats Low vegetation coverage Scattered shrub grassland Commonly sensitive area for soil erosion Commonly sensitive area for desertification Commonly important area for soil conservation

2 Normative References Articles in the following documents are cited in this Guideline. For those documents without dates being noted, their presently effective versions are applicable to this Guideline.

HJ/T2.1 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – General Outline HJ/T130 Technical Guidelines for Planning Environmental Impact Assessment (On Trial) HJ/T192 Technical Specifications for Ecological Environment Assessment (On Trial) HJ/T88 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – Water Conservancy and Hydroelectric Engineering

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3 Terms and Definitions The following terms and definitions are applicable to this Guideline: Ecological Impact Any positive or negative effect to ecosystems, biological elements and non­biological elements within the ecosystems caused by economic and social activities of human beings are referred to as ecological impact.

According to the difference of objects being impacted, ecological impacts are classified into impacts on biological elements including species, species groups, biocenosis and ecosystems, and impacts on non­biological elements containing climate, soil, landscape, hydrology etc.; according to the natures of impacts, ecological impacts can be divided into positive impact and negative impact; by sources of impacts, there are direct impacts, indirect impacts and accumulated impacts; and by the results of impacts, there are reversible impacts and irreversible impacts.

Direct ecological impact Direct ecological impact refers to those ecological impacts that are caused unavoidably, simultaneously and comprovincially by human activities.

Indirect ecological impact It refers to ecological impacts that are caused by human activities, but not occur simultaneously or at the same place.

Accumulated ecological impacts It refers to the accumulation or expansion of ecological impacts caused by all components of human activities and other related activities (including those in the past, at present and in the future).

Ecologically impacted area It means the areas involved by ecological impacts resulted from economic and social activities of human beings.

Ecological monitoring It refers to the survey and observation of the status and changing trend of biological elements and non­biological elements in ecosystems, and collection and analysis of related data by applying physical, chemical and biological methods.

Sensitive ecological area ­ critical It refers to the areas that have critically important ecological­economic value or ecological service functions, or have fragile ecosystem, or have suffered from serious ecological problems such as occupation, lost and damages, as a result of which, the impacts are hard to prevent, and the ecological functions are impossible to be recovered or replaced. See appendix A. Sensitive ecological area ­ important It refers to the areas that have relatively important ecological values (functions), or have relatively fragile ecosystem, or have suffered from relatively serious ecological impacts such as occupation, lost and damages, however, such impacts can be prevented, recovered or replaced by adopting certain measures.

See Appendix A. 8

Sensitive ecological area ­ general It refers to other areas apart from critically sensitive ecological areas and importantly sensitive ecological areas.

River ecosystem River ecosystem is the integrated environment composed of biocenosis at different nutrient levels and the inorganic environment supporting the life system.

Habitat It means the living locations and environments of biological individuals, populations and biocenosis, which contain necessary conditions for survival and other ecological elements that function as well.

River habitat unit It refers to river habitat structures that have the same riverbed substrate, water surface gradient, water depth and flow pattern within the range of 10 meters.

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4 Project Overview and Engineering Analysis 4.1 Project Overview Watershed (river sections) plan: Include the features of natural­geography, social­economy, space distribution of water resources for the places where hydroelectric projects are located, as well as the status of development, utilization, protection and management; elaborate the position and functions of the project in the watershed plan, and provide the watershed plan graph indicating the location of such hydroelectric projects.

Geographic location of projects: Indicate the location of watershed (river sections), administrative jurisdiction locations (province, autonomous region, municipality, city, county etc.), traffic location and coordinates of latitude and longitude.

Project task and scale: Explain the type, scale (size) and operating mode of project.

Overall layout and main buildings of projects: Contain the levels of projects and main buildings, engineering layout, types of buildings, project scale (size), and engineering characteristic indicators, and provide the plot plans of projects.

Construction layout and schedule of projects: Describe the construction conditions, natural construction materials, diversion and interception in the construction, the construction of main works, construction traffic, overall layout of construction, overall schedule and progress of construction, and provide the overall layout plan of construction.

Inundated and occupied land: Indicate the treated areas for inundation, size of inundated and occupied land, current land use status, population structure, industrial and mining enterprises, towns and specialized project facilities. While the resettlement plan for migrants should briefly describe the current status of natural and social environment of resettlement area, resettlement ways, resettlement sites, as well as livelihood restoration measures.

Project investment estimate: Contain the total investment of the project, investment on environmental protection during construction and investment on ecological protection during operation period.

4.2 Engineering Analysis of Projects 4.2.1 Requirements on engineering analysis Engineering analysis can be conducted for construction period and operational period. Focuses should be given to functional elements and impact sources resulting in strong, large and long term impacts or those involving sensitive areas. Engineering analysis of projects should identify the functional elements and impact sources of engineering construction and operation to the environment, the method and scope of impacts, the intensity and discharge volume of pollutant sources, and the degree of impacts on biodiversity.

Data and materials of the design documents in the feasibility study phase of projects, as well as data of analogical projects are mainly applied in the engineering analysis.

4.2.2 Analysis on Impact Sources Engineering analysis should contain the following aspects: manner and scope of impacts, intensity of pollution source, discharge volume of pollutants, and degree of impacts on biodiversity, thus to identify the relationship between engineering projects and the objectives of biodiversity conservation.

Construction: layout of construction site, stock ground, slag dumps, transportation, operation of mechanical equipments, construction camp and human activities.

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Inundation and land occupation: the scope of inundation and land occupation, the change of land use, and the change of bio­quantities.

Resettlement of residents: resettlement mode, reformation of facilities for specialized facilities, relocation of towns and industrial and mining factories.

Operation of projects: the change of water resource distribution, change hydrological conditions and conditions of sand and silt, obstruction of buildings.

4.2.3 Contents of Engineering Analysis Identify and analysis the nature, functional manner and results of impacts in different periods (investigation, construction, operation and decommission) during the implementation of hydroelectric projects, and put focus on construction period and operational period.

According to different ecological background characteristics of impacted areas during the construction period, the analysis should involve the ecological impact process on biological elements and non­biological elements by construction processes, construction time, size and layout of construction site, construction activities of workers, utilization of mechanical equipments and other development and construction activities, and the ecological impacts on sensitive ecological areas caused by project construction should also be analyzed.

During operational period of such hydroelectric projects, the nature, intensity, scope, manner and results of potential ecological impacts caused by the operation of projects should be analyzed, on the basis of operational mode of projects, interactive process between the assessed projects and impacted areas, and the characteristics of dominant ecological elements, thus to identify direct and indirect ecological impacts due to the long­term operation of hydroelectric projects.

4.3 Focuses of Survey and Analysis Define the focuses of survey and analysis according to the characteristics of projects, ecological characteristics of the region and interactive relationship between the assessed projects and impacted areas, with major contents as below: (1) Engineering activities or planning initiatives that might have great impacts on biodiversity; (2) engineering activities and or planning initiatives that have relations with critically and importantly sensitive biodiversity areas; (3) engineering activities or planning initiatives that may have indirect impacts on biodiversity; (4) engineering activities or planning initiatives that may cause significant use and allocation of biodiversity resources.

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5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity 5.1 Survey on the current status of biodiversity 5.1.1 Requirements for surveys on the current status of biodiversity Surveys on the current status of biodiversity are the grounds and basis for assessments on biodiversity status and impact predictions. Contents and indicators being surveyed should reflect background characteristics of biodiversity and the existing major issues in the project affected areas.

Such surveys should include field work based on data and materials collected, and scope of the survey should not be less than the scope of assessment. See Appendix B for methods of survey on biodiversity; see Appendix C for monitoring methods of different ecosystems; see Appendix D for requirements on collection and editing of graphs and documents.

5.1.2 Contents of survey on the current status of biodiversity Contents of survey on the current status of terrestrial biodiversity should include: flora in projects affected areas, vegetation types and distribution; wild fauna populations and distribution; rare animal and plants species, population size, ecological habits, population structure, habitat conditions and distribution, protection levels and protection status; types, levels and scopes of nature reserves that are affected by projects, functional zoning and the status of major protection targets.

Contents of survey on the current status of aquatic biodiversity should include: types quantities and distributions of plankton, benthos and higher aquatic plants; components, types spawning grounds, bait areas and wintering areas of fishes; types, population scales, ecological habits, population structure, habitat conditions and distributions, protection levels and status of rare aquatic species; types, levels, scope, functional zoning, and major protection targets of nature reserves that are affected by projects; surveys on the current status of river habitats in the affected river sections.

Contents of survey on the main ecological issues within the area should include: existing ecological issues and natural disasters impact the maintenance of biodiversity within the project affected areas, such as water and soil erosion, desertification, salinization, natural disasters and pollutions, and the types, causes, space distributions, characteristics, developing processes and trends of such issues should be pointed out.

5. 2 Assessment on current ecological status 5.2.1 Requirements for assessment on the current status of biodiversity On the basis of surveys on the ecological basic characteristics, quantitative or qualitative analysis should be conducted to evaluate the current status of biodiversity in the assessed areas. Assessments should be illustrated with both graphs and texts, and the formulation of graphs should be in line with Appendix D, and assessment methods are stipulated in Appendix E. In principle, Assessment I should present data of biomass and biodiversity estimated by methods of remote sensing or sampling, list of major bio­species, survey reports on species of protected wild animals and plants; for assessment II and III, biomass and biodiversity can be inferred from existing documentation, or verified by field survey of some representative samples, but surveys on major bio­species and protected wild animals and plants are required.

5.2.2 Contents of assessment on the current status of biodiversity (1) On the basis of elaborated biodiversity status, analyze the major causes impacting ecological quality in the area. Assess the structure and function status of ecosystem, pressure and existing issues of biodiversity, and the overall changing trend of biodiversity, from the perspective of ecosystem integrity.

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(2) Analyze and assess the current components, distribution, development trend and disturbance tolerance capacity of biological elements including animals and plants in project affected areas; when sensitive species under protection are involved in assessed areas, importance should attached on the habitats, and ecological habits of such sensitive species in analysis, and the ecological quality should also be assessed in terms of species and populations. Assess the river habitat conditions as well.

(3) Identify and select major ecological issues that have impact on soil, geological and hydrological elements, and analyze their restrictive relations on the projects being assessed; projects assessed should have protective and compensation measures to mitigate and improve existing ecological problems, and would not let such problems get worse at least.

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6 Prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts 6.1 Principles for the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts Principle of objectivity: the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts of projects should be objective, just and scientific; Principle of emphasizing key points: for important environmental elements, the prediction assessment should be in detail and include all aspects; Principle of pragmatism: prediction methods should be target­oriented, practical and operational.

6.2 Scope of the prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts Assess the impacts on ecosystems and main ecological elements involved in the area. By analyzing how impacts work in terms of the way, scope, intensity and duration, identify the scope, degree and duration of impacts, by which the ecosystem and biodiversity are affected, and predict the changing trend of ecosystem components and service functions, with focus on negative and irreversible impacts.

The contents and scale of graphs should meet the requirements of biodiversity conservation and management.

6.3 Contents of the prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts Prediction of impacts on terrestrial plants should include the impacts on types, distributions and evolution trend of forests and grassland, as well as the impacts on the populations and distributions of rare, endangered and endemic plants, ancient trees and precious woods.

Impacts prediction on terrestrial animals should indicate effects on species, distributions and habitats of terrestrial animals, rare and endangered animals, and endemic animals.

Impact prediction on aquatic life should involve the effects on plankton plants, plankton animals, benthos, higher aquatic plants, important economical fishes and other aquatic animals, as well as the impacts on species, distributions and habitats of rare, endangered and endemic aquatic life.

Identify the ecological water consumption of river channels, on the basis of which assess and predict river habitat conditions (see Appendix F for methods of assessment and prediction).

Impacts prediction on nature reserves should identify the impacts on protection targets, protection scope, structure and functions of nature reserves.

Impacts Impacts prediction on soil erosion should make clear the types, distributions, lost volume and harms of soil erosion as a result of damages to the original landform, soil, vegetation, conservation facilities, and waste materials caused by constructions.

6.4 Methods for the prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts Common, mature and appropriate methods for prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts should be selected in line with project characteristics and environmental conditions, and on the basis of survey and discretion of major and supporting ecological functions, as well as necessary ecological processes for those functions. For environmental elements and factors that can be measured by metrological means, quantitative methods should be adopted in accordance with environmental protection laws, regulations and standards at national and local levels; for those elements and factors that cannot be measured with

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metrological means, both qualitative and quantitative methods should be combined for the assessment and prediction. See Appendix E for assessment and prediction in common use.

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7 Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration 7.1 Principles and requirements In accordance with requirements on objectives of environmental protection, countermeasures for prevention, mitigation, restoration, compensation, management, scientific research and monitoring should be proposed targeting at the victims, scope, time and levels of negative impacts on ecological environment caused by engineering projects.

Biodiversity conservation measures should be proved by economic and technological means, thus to select technologically advance, economically reasonable, practicable, protective and effective measures for improving ecological environment.

Countermeasures should include: protecting targets and objectives, contents of protecting measures, scale and technological process of protective facilities, time and location of implementation, guarantee measures for implementation, analysis on expected results. Besides, investment on biodiversity conservation should be estimated, and layout plan of biodiversity conservation measures should be formulated.

Develop Ecological Impacts Prevention and Restoration Plan in the sequence of avoidance, mitigation and compensation. When important ecological targets (such as critically sensitive ecological areas, rare and endangered species etc.) that are irreplaceable, extremely valuable, highly sensitive and irreversible after being damaged are involved, reliable avoidance and design optimization measures of projects must be proposed; when reversible and recoverable ecological targets are involved, recovery and restoration plans should be formulated; projects that will affect basic farming land and ecological forests should make ecological compensation. Ecological compensation measures should be proposed respectively in different implementation phases of projects, and assessment should be conducted to evaluate the effects of compensation measures, and estimate the cost and time duration.

7.2 Prevention and restoration measures against ecological impacts Countermeasures for prevention, mitigation, restoration, compensation, management, scientific research and monitoring should be proposed targeting at the victims, scope, time and levels of negative impacts caused by engineering projects. Ecological protective measures should include protecting targets and objectives, contents of measures, scale and technological processes of facilities, special sequence of implementation, guarantee measures for implementation, analysis on expected results etc., and management regulations for construction phase and operational phase should be proposed to support the main work of projects; measures of ecological protection projects should be reflected on graphs, including layout plan of environmental protection facilities, diagrams on basic processing requirements for environmental protection facilities.

When rare and endangered plants or other plants with protective values are affected by negative impacts, measures such as engineering prevention and protection, transplantation, introduced reproduction ad cultivation, germplasm preservation and management should be proposed. When vegetations are damaged by engineering construction, vegetation restoration and greening measures should be put forward.

When the habitats of rare and endangered terrestrial animals or other terrestrial animals with protective values are damaged, or their living conditions are changed, protection and management measures such as reservation of migration paths or establishment of new habitats should be proposed.

When the population, quantities, habitats, and recurrent migration paths of rare and endangered aquatic life and aquatic life with protective values are affected by negative impacts, protection and management measures such as habitat conservation, fish passage facilities, artificial reproduction and release, establishment of nature reserves should be proposed. When the temperature of discharged water adversely impact the agriculture production and fish reproduction and grow in lower stream, restoration measures for water temperature should be put forward.

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If soil erosion is caused by engineering projects, engineering, plantation and management measures should be adopted to protect water and soil resources.

When the operation of river ecological projects results in reduction of ecological water consumption in lower stream, mitigation and compensation measures must be proposed.

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8 Biodiversity monitoring and management 8.1 biodiversity monitoring Propose long term monitoring plan for species with important ecological effects, and for construction projects, areas and river development projects and plans with large ecological risks, and identify monitoring elements, methods, frequency, funding, working organizations, and carry out review evaluations phase by phase.

Monitor the dynamic changes of related environmental elements and factors in construction period and operational period, and formulate environmental monitoring plan. Track, monitor and investigate environmental emergencies related to engineering projects.

The deployment of monitoring stations and spots should target at major environmental elements and factors impacted during project construction and operational periods. Monitoring stations and spots should be representative, and existing stations and spots should be effectively used.

Infrastructure scale of monitoring stations, instruments and equipments should meet the needs of monitoring and management tasks.

Monitoring scope should be appropriate with projects affected areas. Monitoring locations and frequencies are determined by the representativeness of investigated data, quality of ecological environment, habits and features of monitoring targets.

Requirements for monitoring methods and techniques must comply with the current national technological specifications on environmental monitoring and the standard analyzing methods for environmental monitoring.

8.2 Biodiversity conservation and management The contents of biodiversity conservation and management include the compilation of management plan, development of management measures for implementing biodiversity conservation measures, conducting qualitative analysis and assessment on biodiversity, and carrying out scientific researches and technological management concerning ecological protection; it is suggested that the management staffing plan be integrated in biodiversity management organization of the projects, and management staff’s roles and responsibilities concerning biodiversity be defined.

Tasks of biodiversity conservation and management should include: the execution of biodiversity conservation policies and regulations; development of biodiversity conservation and management plans; the implementation and management of biodiversity conservation measures; recommendation of contents and requirements in regard to environmental protection in the engineering design of projects, environmental supervision of projects, the biding and awarding processes of projects; qualitative analysis and assessment on ecological environment, and scientific researches and technological management in relation to biodiversity etc.

Biodiversity conservation and management should be integrated into project management, being carried through the constructional period and operational period of projects.

Tasks of biodiversity conservation and management should include: the execution of environmental protection policies and regulations; development of environmental management plans; the implementation and management of environmental protection measures; recommendation of contents and requirements in regard to environmental protection in the engineering design of projects, environmental supervision of projects, the biding and awarding processes of projects; qualitative analysis and assessment on environment, and scientific researches and technological management in relation to biodiversity etc.

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Environmental management system, management organizations and staffing should be in accordance with project management system and environmental management tasks.

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9 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation and cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts 9.1 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation All the relevant investments should be listed, including on biodiversity conservation measures to mitigate negative environmental impacts of projects and satisfy projects functions, biodiversity management measures, biodiversity monitoring and researches, as well as those on proper compensations to environmental impacts that are hard to be restored and protected.

Estimation of investments on biodiversity conservation should be classified into biodiversity conservation investment, biodiversity monitoring investment, investment on instruments, equipments and installation, investment on temporary environmental protection facilities, and independent costs.

Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation should clarify the basis for cost standards and quotation. Estimate the total investment on environmental protection and develop annual investment allocation.

9.2 Cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts Cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts should include cost analysis, economic benefit analysis and major conclusions.

Economic cost analysis on biodiversity impacts should include investment on environmental protection to avoid and mitigate negative environmental impacts, and biodiversity loss caused by such engineering projects.

Economic benefits of biodiversity refer to social, economic and environmental benefits resulted from positive biodiversity impacts caused by engineering projects, and benefits gained after adoption of environmental protection measures.

Economic cost­benefit analysis on environmental impacts is better to be measured and quantified in currency, for items hard to be quantified, qualitative measures can be applied in analysis.

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10 Public involvement Construction of hydroelectric projects should consult and reflect public opinions and the wills of relevant social circles in project affected areas. Direct consultancy, commissioned consultancy and other means could be adopted in public involvement.

The scope of public involvement should contain project beneficiary area and non­beneficiary area, in particular the general public in non­beneficiary area. The involvement of public should be general and representative. Public opinions should be collected and summarized according to administrative areas of beneficiary areas and non­beneficiary areas. For environmental concerns raised by general public, answers or solutions shall be provided.

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11 Conclusions The final conclusions of biodiversity impact assessment are expected to be ecological feasibility analysis and conclusions of project implementation.

Contents of the conclusions include overview of assessment on current status, results of biodiversity impact prediction, and comments and recommendations for ecological restoration.

Ecological impact prevention and restoration measures, as well as the investment estimation should be clear in the conclusion.

When comparing and selecting project plans during the assessment process, plans shall be recommended from the perspective of biodiversity conservation. Recommendations should be proposed in the conclusion targeting at ecological impact monitoring system and ecological management.

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Appendix A (normative references) Classification of sensitive ecological areas Types of ecosystem

Critically sensitive ecological Important sensitive ecological area area Forest ecosystem ① (a) protected targets agreed ①experimental zones of national by international conventions nature reserves, provincial nature and protocols；(b) protected and reserves/scenic parks/forest parks, first monitored targets identified by and secondary­level water source conservation areas, river source areas, national laws, regulations, flood retarding basin, protected areas administrative rules and plans, for flood prevention; ②ecological such as habitats of rare and endangered wildlife or special areas, such as slope land with gradient ecosystems, international larger than 25 degrees, key areas for biosphere reserves, core zone soil erosion treatment, key protected and buffer zone of national areas for prevention, importantly nature reserves, protected areas monitored areas; ③natural and for river sources; (c) habitats of secondary forests with coverage larger species listed in the protection than 1 hm 2 , or tropical rainforests; ④ list for rare animals and plants, Shelter forests, roadside woods, and habitats for other endemic experimental woods, seed stand, species; ②important natural returned forest land. forests and tropical rainforests; ③areas with great ecological values, such as biological corridors, flood plain; ④ enclosed protected areas for desertification of land; ⑤Other scientifically identified areas.

Wetland and river ①same as ① described in ①Wetlands larger than 1 hm 2 , natural ecosystem forest ecosystem; ②areas with brooks or rivers longer than 100m, great ecological values, such as spawning grounds, bait areas and biological corridors, flood plain; wintering areas of fishes, and fish wells. ③Important wetlands, spawning grounds of fishes and shrimps, and natural fisheries.

Note a: international conventions, protocols and agreements: Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on Protection of Wildlife, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Ramsar Convention, Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Sino­US Protocol on Nature Conservation, and etc.

Note b: national laws, regulations, administrative rules and plans: Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Nature Reserves, Scenic Spots and Historical Sites Regulations, Management Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Pollution Prevention and Control in Protected Areas for Drinking Water Sources, Fisheries Law of the People’s Republic of China, Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife, Forest Law of the People’s Republic of China, Grassland Law of the People’s Republic of China, Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Water and Soil Conservation, Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, and etc.

Note c: rare animals and plants: species under key protection and listed in List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection, List of Wild Plants under National Key Protection (the first group), and China Species Red List.

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Appendix B (documentary appendix) Survey Methods for the Current Status of Biodiversity and Ecological Environment B.1 Method for data collection It refers to the collection of data that can reflect the current status of regional biodiversity and ecological environment, or the ecological baseline information. In terms of form, data can be divided into literal text and diagrams; in terms of time, it can be divided into historical data and current data; in terms of industries where data is collected, it can be divided into agricultural, forestry, husbandry, fishery and environmental protection; in terms of data features, there are environmental impact report, survey on pollutant sources, ecological protection plans and regulations, ecological function zoning plans, scientific investigation reports and plans on nature reserves, basic situation of sensitive ecological targets, and other ecological surveys. While data collection methods are applied, make sure the timeliness of data, and field verifications are required for cited data.

B.2 Method of field survey Field survey should comply with the principles of focusing on both key points and overall structure. When comprehensively considering the structural and functional integrity of major ecological elements, surveys on key areas and critical timings should be focused on, and verify the accuracy of collected data by filed survey in project affected areas, thus to obtain realistic materials and data.

B.3 Method of public consulting Public consultancy is a beneficial supplementary to field survey, and opinions of general public, social groups and related management departments in projects affected areas should be collected. Surveys are required for protected species, critical species and biodiversity areas with significant values for protection, and omitted ecological issues during field surveys should be identified. Public consultancy should be conducted simultaneously with data collections and field surveys.

B.4 Method of biodiversity monitoring When the data collection, field survey and public consultancy cannot meet the quantitative needs of assessment, or the assessed project might have potential or chronic effects, the method of biodiversity monitoring could be taken into consideration. Monitoring location, frequency and representative monitoring spots can be decided by the ecological features of elements monitored as well as the characteristics of disturbing activities. Monitoring methods and technological requirements must comply with the existing specifications and standard analyzing methods practiced nationally now. For surveys on ecosystem productivity, field sampling and laboratory tests can be adopted if necessary.

B.5 Remote sense Remote sensing is applicable for projects that have large affected areas or the spatial ranges of major ecological elements are relatively large, and impossible to be done manually. When the above methods cannot meet the needs of currents status assessments, remote sensing is recommended, but assisting field surveys are necessary during the remote sensing process.

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Appendix C (documentary appendix) Monitoring methods for major biological groups Indicator types

Monitoring indicators vegetation Plants, vegetation components, distributions, coverage, coverage rate and biomass Wild animals ①birds and soil animals ②large mammal ③rodents ④insects ⑤soil animals

Monitoring methods Requirements for locations Statistics and sample 1000 m 2 forest, 500 plot investigation and m 2 scattered woods harvest method and shrub, 100 m 2 herbosa, randomly selected locations. ①statistics ① 100 m*100 m sampling plot ②route statistics ②sampling line about 5000m long ③trap method ④direct and indirect sampling (sweeping method)

⑥soil microorganism ⑤hand­picking method, colander method, and indoor cultivation

Aquatic life

①large plants ②plankton plants ③plankton animals ④benthos ⑤nekton animals ⑥bacteria ⑦ fishes

River and lake bio­productivity

①primary productivity of plankton plants ②chlorophyll

Social activities of human beings

①forestry economy

③catchers every 5­10m ④typical sampling areas

Monitoring system

①3­4 sampling plots in each type of habitat ②using counter to count the 5000m sampling line ③catching for 3 days continuously ④taking 20 samples within 10m

⑤random sampling

⑤sampling at 5cm, 10cm, 15cm and 30cm above ground ⑥laboratory analysis respectively ①steel traps with nets Within the scope of ①1­2 times per year surveys ②netting of plankton, ②4 times per year precipitation method ③4 times per year ③netting of plankton, precipitation method ④2­4 times per year ④ Sediment sampler method

⑤once a year ⑥twice a year

⑤net and tool method

⑦4 times per year

⑥plate method and direct counting method ⑦electroshock and netting ①4C，black and white dissolved oxygen method ②spectrophotometric method surveys

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Within the scope of 4 ­12 times per year surveys

Within the scope of assessment

②monitoring on pollutants ③bio­toxicity

Biodiversity indicators

④ecological evaluation ①diversity of animals surveys and plants

Within the scope of assessment

②habitats ③characteristics of populations and groups

River integrity indicators

④protected species ①smoothness of river Survey and channel interpretation by remote sensing ②naturalness of river channels and river banks ③stability of flow volume and state

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Within the scope of assessment

Appendix D (normative appendix) Specifications and requirements on diagrams for biodiversity impacts assessment D.1 General Principle D.1.1 Diagrams for biodiversity impacts assessment are the necessary components of biodiversity assessment in hydroelectric projects development, as well as the main basis of assessment and analysis.

Diagrams herein refers to the descriptions, expressions and quantitative analysis reflected in the form of graphs and images, concerning the spatial contents in relation to biodiversity impacts assessment D.1.2 This appendix is applicable to maps expressing geological spatial information in the biodiversity assessments of hydroelectric projects, which should comply with the principles of being effective, practical and normative. Constitution of diagrams and solution of imaging are selected according to the ranks of assessments, imaging scope and the theme contents being represented, and diagrams should fully reflect the assessed projects, ecological element constitutions, spatial distributions and the relationship between assessed projects and impacted areas regarding the effecting approaches and scales.

D.2 Constitution of diagrams D.2.1 According to different characteristics of assessed projects, different ecological sensitivities of affected areas, diagrams of biodiversity impacts assessment usually consist of basic diagrams and recommended diagrams, as described in table D.1.

D.2.2 Necessary diagrams that must be made or provided for the biodiversity impacts assessment of hydroelectric projects, including: geological location map of assessed projects, overview map of assessed scope, plot plan of projects, layout plan of environmental facilities, and basic technical process diagram of environmental facilities. When critically sensitive ecological areas are involved in the assessed projects, spatial images that can reflect the features of ecological sensitivities must be provided, such as spatial distribution map of protected species and distribution map of soil erosion; when conducting ecological monitoring, proper maps of ecological monitoring locations must be provided.

D.2.3 Recommended diagrams are optional diagrams that are helpful to elaborate the results of ecological impact assessment, and can be developed under current technological conditions in forms of maps and images.

Table D.1 Requirements on components of diagrams for ecological impact assessment Basic diagrams

Recommended diagrams (1) If land use plan is available within the assessed scope, the existing land use plan and zoning plan of ecological functions should be provided.

(1) geological location map of projects (2) project site plan or plot plan (3) Land (or Water) use plan (4) Map of vegetation types (5) Distribution map of soil types (6) Spatial distribution map of sensitive ecological areas* (7) Diagram of assessment result and prediction of main elements being assessed (required in principle)

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(8) Location map of ecological monitoring spots (if there is ecological monitoring) (9) Site layout plan of environmental facilities (10) Distribution map of wildlife under key protection (11) Map of waterway and zoning of aquatic environmental function (12) Topographical map, soil map and distribution map of soil erosion (13) Distribution map of animal and plant resources, distribution map of farmland, layout of greening areas and desertification land Note *: “Sensitive ecological areas” refer to “critically sensitive ecological area” and “importantly sensitive ecological area” defined in the section of terms.

D.3 Specifications and requirements on developing diagrams D.3.1 Sources and requirements of data (1) Sources of basic data for developing biodiversity impacts assessment diagrams include existing diagrams, field surveys, experiments, ground investigation and remote sensing information.

(2) Sources of basic data for diagrams should meet the requirements of ecological impact assessment in terms of timeliness, and data sources that are closest to the benchmark time period assess should be selected. When there is little change to the theme contents of diagrams, requirements on timeliness of data sources can be relatively relaxed within the period when no change occurred, but information must be verified through field investigation.

D.3.2 Requirements on precision of diagram developing and imaging Precision of ecological impact assessment diagrams should comply with that in the feasibility study of project; and scale of diagrams should be correspondent to spatial dimension of assessed elements and ecological impacts.

Ecological impact assessment diagrams should be able to accurately and clearly reflect assessed theme contents, and imaging scale should not be lower than specification requirements in D.2. If the mapping scope is too large to clearly reflect the assessed theme contents, the diagram can be divided into portions linked by points, lines and sides; when sensitive ecological targets are involved, separate diagrams should be made in order to raise the precision of imaging.

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Appendix E (documentary appendix) Recommended methods for biodiversity impact assessment and prediction E.1 Method of checklist or description The method of checklist is a kind of qualitative analysis method raised by Little and others in 1971. This method is simple and highly target­oriented. The basic practice of checklist method is to list all the impacting elements of development and construction activities and all the environmental elements might be impacted in the same matrix. Analyze point by point, and elaborate the nature and intensity of every impact, thus to analyze the ecological impacts of development and construction activities.

E.2 Graph overlay method Graph overlay method is to overlay at least two pieces of ecological information on one graph, making a compound graph to indicate the directions and extent of ecological changes. Features of this method are direct, vivid, simple and clear, but it cannot be used for precise quantitative analysis.

E.3 Method of ecological mechanism analysis Animals, plants and their living environment constitute an organic integrity, when the growing environment of plants is impacted by the development of projects, the individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants will surely be impacted as well. This method classify fauna and flora by populations, communities and ecosystems, based on investigations into the current status of environment, animals and plants, thus to identify whether there are rare and endangered species, or species with important economical, historical, scenery and scientific values. At the same time, the method will analyze the evolution trend of animals, plants and ecosystems in the circumstances without any project construction, in order to predict the impacts on individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants, as well as the evolution trend of ecosystems.

E.4 Method of landscape ecology Landscape ecology evaluates the ecological quality status through two aspects, one is the analysis on spatial structure, and the other is the analysis on functions and stability. Since landscape ecology deems that the structure and function of landscape matches each other, and it is the basic principle of ecology and sociological holism to increase the heterogeneity and symbiosis of landscape. The method of landscape ecology is comparatively a good method to predict and analyze land utilization type in hydroelectric project area, and to analyze the habitat fragmentation status after the construction of hydroelectric projects.

E.5 Index method and integrate index method Index method is the assessment method stipulated in the EIA for construction projects, the use of which can be extended to ecological impact assessment as well. Index method is simple and concise, and coincides with the concept of environmental impact assessment familiarly known by people. However, it is difficult to establish a standard system that can reflect the features of ecological quality, and also difficult to conduct empowerment and define the quota.

E.6 Analogy analysis Analogy analysis is an often used assessment method for qualitative and semi­quantitative analysis, and ecological integral analogy is the most common one, apart from which there are analogy of ecological elements, analogy of ecological problems, and etc.

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E.7 Method of systematic analysis Since systematic analysis can properly settle multi­targeted ecological issues, it is currently widely used in different industries, especially in regional planning or resolving the selection of optimized options, systematic analysis can achieve the effects that other methods cannot reach.

Specific methods applied in the systematic analysis for assessment of ecosystem quality usually include expert consultancy, analysis by layers, integrated fuzzy evaluation, comprehensive sequencing, systematic dynamics, gray relative analysis method etc. These methods are all applicable for ecological impact assessment, and the practical operation of these methods can be referred from relevant books or magazines.

E.8 Quantified calculation method for biodiversity Biodiversity is usually interpreted by index of diversity, degree of homogeneity and degree of dominance.

E.9 Method of ecological quality index (EQI) EQI is applicable for assessment on the changing range of ecological quality. The method of EQI is guided by the theory of vegetation zoning, and raised appropriate indicator system for the eight major vegetation zones distributed in China, which has broken up the limitation of administrative boundary, while taking into consideration the different geological and climate conditions under primitive state. The method of EQI mainly consists of three parts: construct hierarchical model of ecological indicator system by applying analysis of layers; calculate weights by using Matlab; and evaluate ecological state by using EQI calculation formula.

E.10 Method of ecological index (EI) The indicator system and calculation methods formulated by EI for assessment of ecological environment are applicable for annual comprehensive assessment on ecological environmental status and dynamic trend in counties and regions above county level.

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Appendix F (documentary appendix) Recommended assessment method for river habitat F.1 Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) This method is focused on the structure and functions of aquatic biological communities, using 12 indicators (abundance of river fish species, types of indicator species, types of nutrition, quantities of fishes etc.) to assess the health condition of rivers.

F.2 Riparian, Channel and Environmental Inventory Disturbance on natural channels and riparian is the main reason for the deterioration of biological structures and functions of rivers. The method has 16 indicators including integrity of riparian, width and depth of channel, riparian structure, riverbed conditions, aquatic vegetation, fishes etc, classifying the health conditions of rivers into 5 ranks, from the rank of excellent to the rank of poor.

F.3 Rapid assessment for river habitat This method conducts rapid assessment on river habitat from two aspects, the diversity of river habitat structures and the integrity of river habitat functions.

F.4 Rapid assessment Protocols This contains assessment methods for periphyton, amphibians, fishes and their habitats. Different parameter settings are adopted for channel slopes at different river sections, and a score range of 0­20 is designed for every assessed river section, of which 20 indicates the highest quality of habitat.

F.5 River ecological health investigation By investigating into the indicators such as background information, channel data, sediment features, vegetation types, riparian erosion, riparian characteristics etc., to assess the natural characteristics and quality of river ecological environment, and identify the gaps between the current status of river habitat and its pure natural state.

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Appendix G (documentary appendix) Recommended assessment method for ecological water consumption within river channel G.1 Hydrology Hydrology can identify the ecological water consumption within river channel according to some simple hydrological indicators based on historical river flow.

Tennant method: describe the flow state in river channel by annual average run off according to hydrological documents.

Minimal average monthly run off: take the average value measured for several years with the minimal average monthly run off data as the basic ecological water consumption of rivers.

G.2 Hydromechanics Hydromechanics is the model designed in line with the standards for protected habitat types, which mainly include the method of wetted perimeter and R2­CROSS method.

Method of wetted perimeter: take wetted perimeter as the quality indicator of habitat, make the curve on the relationship between wetted perimeter of critical habitat area and river flow, and identify the recommended river flow according to turning point in the curve.

G.3 R2­CROSS method Assess the protection level of river habitat using indicators of river width, average water depth, average flow speed and wetted perimeter rate, thus to identify the targeted river flow amount. Among which, wetted perimeter rate means the percentage of the wetted perimeter of a certain cross­section at a certain flow point in the full wetted perimeter of several years’ average flow.

G.4 Combination method (hydrological – biological analysis) Adopting multi­variable regression statistics method, to establish the relationship between initial bio­data (biomass of species or biodiversity) and environmental conditions (flow amount, flow speed, water depth, chemistry and temperature), thus to identify river flow amount required by bio­species and the impacts on bio­groups caused by flow changes.

G.5 Method of habitat simulation Decide the river flow, by simulating the hydro­mechanical conditions required by indicator species, with the assumption that water depth, flow speed, substrate and covering are the major elements of impacts on the quantity and distribution of species caused by flow change. Investigate and analyze indicator species’ requirements on water depth, flow speed and other elements, thus to developing the curve indicating the fitness between environmental parameters (such as water depth and flow speed) and favorability. Map the curve of river flow and WUA. The larger the WUA value is, the more appropriate habitat is for the bio­life under such flow circumstances.

G.6 Synthetic method BBM is the typical of synthetic method. Based on the integrity of river system and experts comments, this method is focused on the study of river flow, sediment transportation, and the relation between riverbed shape and river bank bio­communities.

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G.7 Method of ecological­hydromechanics Method of ecological­hydromechanics is the habitat simulation method that defines proper river flow according to the hydro­mechanical environment appropriate for aquatic life. Assuming that water depth, flow speed, wetted perimeter, water surface width, area of flow cross­section, area of water surface and water temperature are the major hydro­mechanical habitat parameters reflecting the impacts on species changes at the change of river flow; and assuming that rapid flow, smooth flow, riffle and pool are the major hydro­mechanical states embodying the impacts on species changes at the change of river flow. The model consists of three modules, one is description of aquatic habitat in river channel, and this module investigate aquatic life’s basic survival requirements on parameters such as water depth and river flow; thus to analyze the impacts of water temperature on aquatic life; and analyze aquatic life’s basic survival requirements on hydro­mechanical state such as rapid flow. Another module is the simulation of hydromechanics, using hydro­mechanical model to study river sections and conduct hydro­mechanical simulation from 1D to 3D, thus to study the change of each hydro­mechanical habitat parameter at the different flow state. Formulate indicator system for hydro­mechanical habitat, by analyzing the first and second modules. The other module is the decision module for the aquatic ecological base flow of river channel. The ecological basic flow of river channel is determined by specialists working in the fields of hydrological, water resource, hydromechanics, EIA and aquatic ecology based on the indicator system of hydro­mechanical habitat, and in line with water flow process of river channel, local economic and social situation, as well as relevant policies.

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Appendix H (documentary appendix) Recommended rapid assessment method for river habitat H.1 Indicator system and model construction H.1.1 Indicator system The indicator system for rapid assessment of river habitat quality consists of three levels: objective level, principle level and indicator level (see table H­1) Objective level refers to the quality of river habitat (A), reflecting the overall quality of river habitat in terms of structure and functions.

Principle level includes river habitat structure (B1) and river habitat function (B2). River habitat structure indicates the diversity and abundance of river habitat unit types and components; river habitat function reflects the average level of ecological functional integrity of every river habitat unit.

Indicator level includes three indicators: index of river habitat diversity (C1), wetting rate of river channel (C2), and quality index of habitat unit (C3).

Index of river habitat diversity is decided by the types and quantity of habitat units, which is an indicator showing the complexity of habitat. If the habitat structure is more complicate, the possibility to provide more appropriate living environment to bio­life will be larger, and it can also reduce the competition on living space between species.

Wetting rate of river channel is the ratio between average surface width of river section and the average full water surface of river section, which indicates the area size of river habitat unit, and positively related with water flow.

Quality index of habitat unit is the comprehensive measurement of functions of every river habitat unit.

The quality of habitat unit is evaluated by substrate, coarse particulate organic matter, macro­invertebrates and average water depth. The organization and size of substrate is often related to abundance and constitution of macro­invertebrates. Pores will be smaller when the substrate is smaller, thus less habitat space can be provided, and the quantity of macro­invertebrates living in between will be less. In mountainous rivers, the rapid river flow often kills or rushes out some aquatic life. Coarse and big substrates are more stable, which can potentially reduce the chance for macro­invertebrates to get mechanical injuries. Coarse particulate organic matter (mainly refer to fallen leaves and residual woods by riverside) is the important supplementary material and energy supply in mountainous rivers, thus is the critical factor for the maintenance of biodiversity in mountainous rivers. Macro­invertebrates are the major bait for fishes in mountainous rivers, and function well as indicators for environmental changes. Different types of habitat units have different ecological functions in river ecosystems. Water depth of riffle and glide in mountainous rivers are shallower with enough sunshine, coarse and large substrates, and good stability, which helps to block large amount of coarse particulate organic matter, thus become the area with highest productivity within the river section. Substrate, coarse particulate organic matter and macro­invertebrates are the 3 indicators for evaluating the habitat unit quality of riffle type. Pools are usually the shelter of cyprinid fishes, thus water depth is applied to evaluate the habitat quality of pools.

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Table H­1 Indicator system for rapid assessment of river habitat quality Objective level

Principle level River habitat structure B1

River habitat quality A

River habitat function B2

Indicator level Index of river habitat diversity C1 Wetting rate of river channel C2 Quality index of habitat unit C3

H.1.2 Assessment model for river habitat quality According to above mentioned indicator system, this Guideline proposes to use river habitat quality (A) to comprehensively reflect the habitat situation of rivers, thus constructed the assessment model for river habitat quality:

A = B 1 × m B 1 + B 2 × m B 2

(1)

In the equation: A is the river habitat quality; B1 is the index of river habitat structure; B2 is the index of river habitat function; m B1 is the weight coefficient of B1; and m B2 is the weight coefficient of B2.

The calculation formula for the index of river habitat structure (B1) is as follow:

B 1 = C 1 × m C 1 + C 2 × m C 2

(2)

C1 = f ( hn × ht )

(3)

C 2 = f ( w / w f )

(4)

In the equation: C1 is the index of river habitat diversity；C2 is the wetting rate of river channel； m C1 is the weight coefficient of C1； m C 2 is the weight coefficient of C2；hn is the number of river habitat units；ht is the number of types of river habitat unit；w is the average width of water surface of a certain river section； w f is the average width of full water level of a certain river section； f is the standard function classified scoring.

The calculation formula for the index of river habitat function is as follow: n

n

B 2 = C 3 = å ( q i ´a i ) / å a i i =1

(5)

i =1

In the equation: C3 is the quality index of habitat unit; q i is the sub­quality index of the No.i river habitat unit; n is the number of habitat units within the river section; a i is the area size of the No.i habitat unit.

The calculation formula for sub­quality Index of pool­type habitat unit ( q i ) is as follow:

qi = f ( dep i )

(6)

The calculation formula for sub­quality index of riffle and glide habitat unit is as follow: 35

q i = f ( su i ) × m su + f ( m i ) × m m + f ( cpom i ) × m cpom

(7)

In the equation: dep i is the average water depth of No.i habitat unit; su i is the substrate of No.i habitat unit; m i is the abundance of macro­invertebrates of No.i habita unit; cpom i is the abundance of coarse

m su is the weight coefficient of substrate; m m is the weight coefficient of macro­invertebrates abundance; m cpom is the weight coefficient of coarse particulate particulate organic matter of No.i habitat unit; organic matter abundance.

H.2 Standard of scoring and weight of indicators According to the current status of indicators, the comprehensive scoring of river habitat quality is classified into four ranks (see table H­2): 0~0.25(poor), 0.25~0.5(relatively poor), 0.5~0.75(relatively good), 0.75~1(good). The quantified indicator scores are calculated by standard index method [14], and the qualified indicator scores are obtained by visual observation.

Weight of indicator is defined through expert consultancy and scoring. Weight of river habitat structure

m B

(

1

m B

), and weight of river habitat function

2

each takes up 0.5. Weight of index of river habitat

m C

m

diversity ( 1 ), and weight of wetting rate of river channel ( C 2 ) each takes up 0.2 and 0.3 respectively.

When assessing riffle and glide habitats, the weights of coarse particulate organic matter,

m cpom

macro­invertebrates and substrate take up 0.15 (

m su ) respectively.

), 0.15 ( m m ), and 0.2 (

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Table H­2 Scoring standard for rapid assessment of river habitat quality Principle Indicator level level Index of Number of habitat river unit types × number habitat Index of of habitat units diversity river Average width of habitat Wetting water structure rate of surface/average river width of full water channel level Coarse particulate organic matter Substrate Index of Quality (proportion of huge river index of rock and granite) habitat habitat function unit Macro­invertebrates Average water depth

Ranks of indicator

<10

10­20

20­40

40­45

0~20%

20%~35%

35%~50%

50%~100%

rare

few

Relatively abundant

abundant

<25%

25%~50%

50%~75%

>75%

rare

few

Relatively abundant

abundant

0~0.5 m

0.5m~1 m

1m~1.5 m

1.5 m~2m

Ranks of comprehensive score of river 0.25~0.5(relatively 0.5~0.75(relatively 0~0.25(poor) 0.75~1(good) habitat quality poor) good)

H.3 Method for river habitat survey The number of river sections to be surveyed is decided by the size of project impacted area. In every 200m­long representative river section, survey cross­sections should be set up every 50m, to measure the width of water surface and width of river channel. Divide river section into several habitat units according to water flow state, types of substrate and water depth. Every habitat unit should have at least 3 cross­sections, and at least 5 survey spots averagely located on every cross­section, to measure water depth and the flow speed at 0.6 time point of water depth; at the same time the length of every habitat unit should be measured, and the types of habitat unit should be recorded; randomly pick up cobbles, in order to assess the abundance of macro­invertebrates and coarse particulate organic matter.

The Bisson river habitat classification system is applied in this assessment model for habitat classification, namely to classify river habitat units into 3 major types: pool, riffle and glide. Pools have 6 habitat types, including dammed pools, lateral scour pools, plunge, trench, backwater and secondary channel pools; riffles are further classified into 5 types including secondary channel riffles, low gradient riffles, high gradient riffles, rapids and cascades.

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Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Regional Development and Planning EIA

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Contents 1 General Principles....................................................................................................................................42 1.1 Subject Matter and Scope of Application ...........................................................................................42 1.1.1 Subject Matter..............................................................................................................................42 1.1.2 Scope of Application....................................................................................................................42 1.2 Normative References.........................................................................................................................42 1.3 Terms ..................................................................................................................................................42 1.4 Purposes and Principles of Biodiversity Impact Assessment for Regional Development and Planning EIA............................................................................................................................................................43 1.4.1 Purposes of Biodiversity Impact Assessment ..............................................................................43 1.4.2 Principles of Biodiversity Impact Assessment.............................................................................43 1.5 Working Procedure of Biodiversity Impact Assessment for Regional Development and Planning EIA ..................................................................................................................................................................43 2 Contents and Methods of Biodiversity Impact Assessment for Regional Development and Planning EIA ...............................................................................................................................................................45 2.1 Analysis on Regional Development and Planning..............................................................................45 2.1.1 Description of Regional Development and Planning...................................................................45 2.1.2 Analysis on Impact Sources of Regional Development and Planning Elements .........................45 2.1.3 Analysis on the Coordination between Regional Development and Planning Objectives ...........45 2.2 Preliminary Diagnosis of Biodiversity Impacts ..................................................................................46 2.2.1 Identification of Impacting Elements...........................................................................................46 2.2.2 Identification of Impacted Objects...............................................................................................46 2.2.3 Methods for Preliminary Diagnosis of Impacts ...........................................................................46 2.3 Survey and Assessment on Biodiversity Current Status .....................................................................46 2.3.1 Survey on Current Status .............................................................................................................46 2.3.2 Assessment on Current Status ......................................................................................................47 2.4 Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts .................................................................................48 2.4.1 Purposes of Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts ......................................................48 2.4.2 Contents and Methods for Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts................................48 2.5 Mitigation Measures for Biodiversity Impacts ...................................................................................50 2.5.1 Avoidance of Biodiversity Impacts ..............................................................................................50 2.5.2 Prevention, Recovery and Compensation of Biodiversity Impacts..............................................50 2.5.3 Development of Track Monitoring Program................................................................................50 2.6 Conclusion of Biodiversity Impact Assessment..................................................................................51 2.6.1 Forms of Assessment Conclusions...............................................................................................51 2.6.2 Propose to adopt environmentally feasible planning that have been recommended....................51 2.6.3 Propose to Modify the Planning ..................................................................................................51 2.6.4 Propose to Abandon the Planning ................................................................................................51 2.7 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation ......................................................................51 2.8 Public involvement .............................................................................................................................52 3 Compilation of Biodiversity Impact Assessment Report for Regional Development and Planning EIA ...............................................................................................................................................................53 3.1 Presentation Requirements of the Report............................................................................................53 3.2 Outline of Biodiversity Impact Assessment Report for Regional Development and Plan EIA ..........53 4 Implementation of Track Monitoring and Assessment.........................................................................55

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Attachments.................................................................................................................................................56

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1 General Principles 1.1 Subject Matter and Scope of Application 1.1.1 Subject Matter This Guideline defines the general principles, working procedures, working methods, working contents and requirements for biodiversity impact assessment of regional development and planning EIA in Chongqing.

1.1.2 Scope of Application This Guideline is applicable for biodiversity impact assessment in the EIA of regional development and planning projects that have impacts on ecological environment in Chongqing.

1.2 Normative References Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – General Outline (HJ/T2.1­93) Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – Non­pollution Ecological Impacts (HJ/T19­1997) Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment of Development Area (HJ/T 131—2003) Technical Guidelines for Planning Environmental Impact Assessment (on trial) (HJ/T 130—2003) Technical Criterion for Eco­environmental Status Evaluation (on trial) (HJ/T 192—2006)

1.3 Terms (1) Biodiversity Biodiversity here contains gene diversity, species diversity, ecosystem diversity, landscape diversity and cultural diversity.

(2) Regional biodiversity impact assessment This is mainly to identify biodiversity objects that are affected or need to be protected, such as species, populations, communities, habitats, landscape etc; identify special functional zones of biodiversity conservation and argument the effectiveness of conservation; identify major factors of biodiversity conservation in project affected areas; comprehensively analyze and assess biodiversity impact intensity and characteristics caused by regional development and planning, thus to provide basis for macroscopic decision making and management.

(3) Planning Proposals This refers to the collection of planning that complies with planning objectives for comparison and selection, including recommended proposals and alternative proposals.

(4) Recommended environmentally feasible proposal This refers to the planning proposal in compliance with planning objectives and biodiversity conservation objectives, and is recommended to be adopted.

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(5) Mitigation measures These are measures to prevent, reduce, recover or compensate negative biodiversity impacts potentially caused by the implementation of regional development and planning.

(6) Track monitoring Monitor and analyze biodiversity impacts caused by the implementation of regional development and planning, in order to verify the accuracy of biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning, and judge the effectiveness of mitigation measures, thus to raise improvement measures.

1.4 Purposes and Principles of Biodiversity Impact Assessment for Regional Development and Planning EIA 1.4.1 Purposes of Biodiversity Impact Assessment Fully consider the biodiversity issues may be involved in the process of compiling regional development and planning and making decisions, prevent negative biodiversity impacts that may be potentially caused by the implementation of regional development and planning, and coordinate the relationship between economic growth, social development and biodiversity conservation.

1.4.2 Principles of Biodiversity Impact Assessment (1) The principle of being scientific, objective and just: the biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA must be scientific, objective and just, and comprehensively consider potential biodiversity impacts by the implementation of planning, thus to provide scientific basis for decision making.

(2) The principle of early involvement: biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA should be engaged at the early stage of planning compilation, and integrate biodiversity considerations fully into the planning.

(3) The principle of integrity: the biodiversity impact assessment for one regional development and planning EIA should be connected with related policies, planning and projects, thus to make an integral consideration.

(4) The principle of public involvement: public involvement is encouraged in the process of biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA, meanwhile the interests and opinions of all social sectors should be fully considered.

(5) The principle of consistency: the working depth of biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA should be consistent with the depth and detail degree of the planning.

(6) The principle of operability: choose simple, pragmatic, experience verified and feasible assessment methods, and ensure the operability of assessment conclusions.

1.5 Working Procedure of Biodiversity Impact Assessment for Regional Development and Planning EIA See Figure 1 for the working procedure of biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA.

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Analysis on regional development and plan

Preliminary diagnosis of biodiversity impacts

Survey and assessment of current biodiversity status

Prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts

Mitigation measures (monitoring plan included) Accept or revise the plan Assessment conclusion

Public involvement

Abandon the plan

Adopt feasible plan Compile report

Implement track monitoring and assessment

Figure 1 working procedure of biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA

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2 Contents and Methods of Biodiversity Impact Assessment for Regional Development and Planning EIA 2.1 Analysis on Regional Development and Planning 2.1.1 Description of Regional Development and Planning Impact assessment should be conducted on the basis of complete understanding of regional development and planning, which should elaborate and compendiously analyze the compilation background, planning objectives, planning targets, planning contents, implementation program, and the relation with laws, regulations and other planning.

2.1.2 Analysis on Impact Sources of Regional Development and Planning Elements Purpose of the analysis is to make clear the biodiversity impact source due to regional development and planning implementation, source strength and preliminary preventive measures. The contents, depth and credibility of data obtained in the analysis on impact sources are directly related to the accuracy of biodiversity impact prediction and the reliability of follow­up mitigation measures. Therefore, the analysis on impact sources is critical to biodiversity impact assessment. Analyze the rationality of layout of projects listed in regional development and planning, and propose remedial adjustment measures for unreasonable layout of projects.

On the basis of regional development and planning’s size, land coverage, main projects, public facilities, greening measures, road planning etc., analyze elements that may cause impacts on biodiversity in the implementation of regional development and planning, and find out the distribution of impact sources and intensity of impacts. Major contents are listed below: 1) Land coverage, analysis of impacts on animal and plant habitats 2) Ecological impact analysis on vegetation fragmentation, soil erosion, farmland occupation, forest damages, and etc.

3) Analyze the impacts on biodiversity caused by atmosphere, noise, solid waste, living consumption waste and waste water discharged in construction period etc.

2.1.3 Analysis on the Coordination between Regional Development and Planning Objectives In line with the planned development and planning objectives, compare and analyze the coordination with other planning (including environmental protection plan) in the same industry/area.

In particular, special attention should be paid on the coordination between the planned development and other two types of planning: one type refers to those development and plans having similar environmental and ecological issues or common environmental impacts, occupying or utilizing the same natural resources.

The purpose is to analyze the coordination of those development and plans based on same environmental and resource issues. For instance, “Chongqing Species Resources” and “List of Rare, Endangered and Endemic Animal Species in Chongqing” and other materials on biological resources in Chongqing should be considered when analyzing the coordination of regional development and planning objectives. The other type refers to ecological protection related planning such as Zoning and Planning for Protection of Ecological Functions, Ecological Province (Municipality) Planning etc. For instance, the relation of planned development and planning with “Chongqing Ecological Functions Zoning and Planning” and “Chongqing Four Mountains Planning” etc should be fully considered when analyzing the coordination.

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2.2 Preliminary Diagnosis of Biodiversity Impacts 2.2.1 Identification of Impacting Elements This is mainly to identify impacting subjects, namely to identify the regional development and planning.

The purpose of the identification is to clarify the following three aspects.

1) The space of regional development and planning, the impacts of centralized construction site and distributed sites 2) Time arrangement for the implementation of regional development and planning 3) Effective subjects of the regional development and planning, including main projects and supporting projects.

2.2.2 Identification of Impacted Objects This is mainly to identify objects being impacted, as well as ecosystems and ecological elements in mainly affected areas. Contents are listed in the following three aspects.

1) Impacts on ecosystem components, namely ecological elements consisting the ecosystem, such as species, populations, communities, habitats, and rare and endangered species in particular.

2) Protected targets of sensitive landscape, such as water source areas, water source conservation forests, scenic and historical interest areas, special habitats, fragile ecosystem, important farmland etc.

3) Protected targets of special cultural landscape required locally, such as natural and historical sites, specialty areas, cultural heritages etc.

2.2.3 Methods for Preliminary Diagnosis of Impacts It is recommended to adopt methods such as informal discussion, interview, poll survey, data investigation and analysis etc, and use checklist to reflect. See Attachments for more details.

2.3 Survey and Assessment on Biodiversity Current Status 2.3.1 Survey on Current Status 2.3.1.1 Contents of Survey 1) Rare and endangered species and populations: including variety of rare and endangered species, quantity, distribution, living habits, growth, reproduction and migration rules, as well as historical changes.

2) Ecosystem: types, structure, spatial arrangement, functional services, historical changes, relations with other environmental elements and other ecologically restricted elements.

3) Protected targets of regional sensitive landscape: water source areas, water source conservation forests, scenic and historical interest areas, special habitats, fragile ecosystem, important farmland etc.

4) Protected targets of special cultural landscape required locally: the distribution of natural and historical sites, specialty areas, cultural heritages etc.

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2.3.1.2 Methods of Survey 1) Data collection: Collect list of biological species, animal communities, flora, maps of soil type and others; collect materials and data about pollutant source and ecosystem pollution level of the assessed areas from EIA’s of the local environmental protection department; collect materials and data about biodiversity resources in assessed areas from project websites (other websites included) and relevant databases. Collect regulations on natural resources, nature reserves, and protection of rare and endangered species formulated by governments at different levels, as well as environmental protection planning and materials on habitats and rare and endangered species that have been confirmed nationally and internationally with special significance, and collect related international regulations.

2) Informal discussion and interview: Find out the current status and existing problems of regional biodiversity, through informal discussions and interviews with experts, scholars, and local residents.

3) Field survey: Field survey is important to biodiversity assessment, and field surveys are required in order to obtain realistic materials and data within assessed areas, if necessary, sample quadrats can be added as supplement.

2.3.2 Assessment on Current Status 2.3.2.1 Purposes of Assessment The purpose of assessment on current status is to fully understand and analyze the spatial distribution, quantity and historical change of biodiversity within the development and planning area, thus to lay foundation for the assessment impacts prediction.

2.3.2.2 Contents of Assessment Assessment on biodiversity current status should elaborate species resources situation within the assessed area, including variety and distribution of bio­species, quantity and distribution of rare and endangered species and other basic situations; elaborate the natural resources and dominant resources within the area, the utilization situation of those resources, and their impacts on different types of habitats; elaborate the relations and connections between different ecosystems within the area, and the relations between different ecological elements (focus on the food chain); find out major restrictive conditions of ecosystems within the area and the special characteristics of biological resources within the area. In addition, assessment on current status should also clarify the major pressures, threats and existing problems encountered by biodiversity in the area.

2.3.2.3 Methods of Assessment 1. Selection of Indicators On the basis of biodiversity impact identification for regional development and planning EIA, considering the biodiversity survey results and analysis of regional development and planning, preliminarily set up assessment indicators through theoretical analysis, experts consultancy and public involvement, and further supplement, adjust and improve those indicators during the process of assessment. Recommended indicators are listed below: 1) Indicator of species diversity (1) Endemic species (2) Species or communities of ancient origin (3) Rare and endangered species 47

(4) Species abundance/Species richness (5) Average species per unit area 2) Indicator of habitat and ecosystem diversity (1) Diversity of ecosystem types (2) Rareness of habitats (3) Vegetation coverage (4) Distribution density of ecological corridors (5) Proportion of green land 3) Other indicators (1) Density of water network (2) Proportion of farming land (3) Protected targets of cultural landscape 2. Methods of Assessment This is mainly to assess the quantity, spatial structure and changing situation of selected indicators.

Methods such as data searching and selection, model calculation, remote sensing, GIS etc. may be applied.

See attachment for more details on operational methods for above mentioned indicator assessment.

2.4 Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts 2.4.1 Purposes of Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts Purposes of prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts are: (1) figure out the nature and extent of impacts, and the prominence of impacts, thus to decide actions accordingly; (2) find out the sensitivity of biodiversity impacts and other protected targets being impacted, in order to define protection priorities; (3) make clear the gains and losses of ecological and biological resources as well as social economic values, thus to make choices.

2.4.2 Contents and Methods for Prediction Assessment of Biodiversity Impacts Conduct the assessment on the prediction of negative biodiversity impacts follow up to the implementation of regional development and planning, including selection of indicators and prediction assessment on impacts. For instance, the quantity of animals and plants reduce or extinct, area or number of habitats reduce, structure of population or communities change, habitats are damaged etc. In case there is no sensitive ecological protection targets, prediction assessment should be conducted on the ecological integrity of natural system within assessed area, and analyze whether such impacts will result in great loss of biodiversity; if there are other sensitive landscape protection targets, then contents of prediction assessment on impacts of sensitive landscape protection targets should be added.

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2.4.2.1 Benchmark for Selection of Prediction Assessment Indicators The following benchmarks for indicator selection are recommended when having prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts: (1) Take ecological theories as the benchmark for selection of assessment indicators In ecological assessment, one of the basic principles is to avoid endangerment and extinction of species, so assessment indicators such as extinction risk, population viability, minimum population that are able to survive, effective population, minimum habitat area etc., and correspondent techniques can be developed accordingly. Besides, through the assessment, the most important habitats, most significant ecosystems, ecosystems, habitats and biological populations requiring protection priority can be figured out.

(2) Take laws and regulations on environmental protection and resources protection as the benchmark for selection of assessment indicators Conduct assessment in line with laws and regulations, with main focuses being given to legal protection targets and protection levels, legally prohibited behavior and activities, as well as important boundary and limitations stipulated in laws and regulations.

(3) Take the economic gains and losses as the benchmark for selection of assessment indicators Economic assessment not only evaluate the amount of value or the economic gains and losses, it can also figure out issues about economic significance, such as rareness, uniqueness and basic survival resources, all those with relatively high significance.

(4) Take feasibility and rapidness as the benchmark for selection of assessment indicators The biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning EIA focuses on feasibility and rapidness, in order to provide scientific basis for decision makers, so feasibility and rapidness is one of the benchmarks. It is recommended to preliminarily set up assessment indicators through theoretical analysis, experts consultancy and public involvement, and further supplement, adjust and improve those indicators during the process of assessment, on the basis of biodiversity impact identification for regional development and planning EIA, and considering the biodiversity survey results and analysis of regional development and planning. Refer to indicator system for assessment on biodiversity current status afore mentioned in this Guideline.

2.4.2.2 Prediction Assessment Prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts is the weak part in general environmental impact assessment work. Prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts is usually expressed in vague language instead of accurate figures, and methods adopted in prediction assessment are often special cases instead of commonly applied rules, with a lot of human subjective recognitions, and those biodiversity impacts are usually potential risks, which may not happen for sure. Therefore, in an ideal circumstance, the prediction assessment of biodiversity impacts could be considered as a hypothesis with basis, which can be managed and practically verified in the future.

Biodiversity impacts do not have definite cause­effect relations, nor is the direct effect­result impact, in fact, biodiversity impacts are the results of accumulative and a lot of indirect effects. Prediction assessment of biodiversity should reasonably consider many factors, and integrally apply methods such as inductive inference, experts (expertise) estimation, experiences, experimental data, quantified model and other methods.

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Prediction assessment needs to make discretion on the spatial conflicts of impacts and analysis on the effects of impacts, which will be mainly on the ecological effects of such impacts, namely analysis on the results and extent of impact. Main contents are listed in the following three aspects: 1) Nature of the impacts: It should clarify what are the impacts, for instance, positive or negative, reversible or irreversible, long­term or short term, recoverable or not, accumulative impacts or non­accumulative impacts, physical effects, chemical effects or biological effects.

2) Extent of impacts: size of impacted area, duration time and intensity of impacts.

3) Possibility of impacts: figure out direct impacts and indirect impacts, and the extent of possibility to occur.

Assessment methods commonly used include: experts estimation, checklist, ecological graphics, matrix, ecological mechanism, identification of remote sensing images, landscape ecology, analogical analysis, weighted comparison, modeling etc. (See attachment of this Guideline for more details about some of the methods herein). Assessment methods should be identified according to specific situation in the realistic assessment work.

2.5 Mitigation Measures for Biodiversity Impacts 2.5.1 Avoidance of Biodiversity Impacts Avoidance of biodiversity is to adopt proper measures to avoid potential negative biodiversity impacts.

Some types of ecological environment are irrecoverable once damaged, but such ecosystems usually have significant value for protection, important ecological functions, or precious species, thus should be absolutely protected. Measures adopted to avoid biodiversity impacts usually include changing project sites, revising project designs, restricting construction methods or timing, changing road routes, modifying planning or project scale. Under extreme circumstances when some serious and unavoidable impacts are identified in biodiversity impact assessment, it will be likely to reject part of the contents in the regional development and planning or even the whole development and planning. If some important wetlands, primitive forests and important habitats will be involved in the regional development and planning, usually avoidance measures should be considered.

2.5.2 Prevention, Recovery and Compensation of Biodiversity Impacts Proper measures should be adopted to mitigate the extent and scope of unavoidable biodiversity impacts.

For instance, transfer important species, restrict project construction within a certain area or season, and restore habitats that have been affected etc. proper segregation measures or the establishment of ecological corridors could help to reduce negative biodiversity impacts to some extent.

When important species, habitats and resources are affected by projects, the same species or similar habitats could be provided in­situ or ex­situ in order to compensate. In­situ compensation is similar to ecological restoration, however, it is impossible or not necessarily for newly established ecosystem to be completely identical to the original one. Ex­situ compensation is to implement compensation measures elsewhere other than the project site, when the eco­environmental functions cannot be recovered or compensated at the project construction site. The ex­situ compensation sites could be proper venues within the area or sites in other planned ecological construction projects. For ex­situ compensation, special attention should be given to the relations connecting compensation sites and types with the ecological types and functions at project area, as well as other equivalent relationships of compensation quantity.

2.5.3 Development of Track Monitoring Program For regional development and planning that may cause significant biodiversity impacts, track monitoring program and its implementation plan should be developed while editing biodiversity impact assessment 50

documents for such regional development and planning EIA. The following contents should be contained in the monitoring program: 1) List ecological elements or indicators that need to be monitored.

2) Specific biodiversity monitoring methods.

3) Implementation plans for the monitoring program.

2.6 Conclusion of Biodiversity Impact Assessment 2.6.1 Forms of Assessment Conclusions Follow up to afore mentioned works, one of the conclusions below should be figured out for the assessed regional development and planning: 1) Propose to adopt environmentally feasible planning that has been recommended; 2) Propose to modify the planning; 3) Propose to abandon the planning.

2.6.2 Propose to adopt environmentally feasible planning that have been recommended The initiative planning concept or draft may be out after analysis and optimization or due to various reasons. Though some plans conform to social and economic development objectives, they may need to be modified or abandoned for not comply with eco­environmental objectives. In the cycling process from compiling planning to integrating environmental assessment, the final result should only be adopting environmentally feasible plan.

2.6.3 Propose to Modify the Planning If the existing regional development and planning is deemed unfeasible eco­environmentally through biodiversity impact assessment, it should be considered to modify the planning objectives or the planning program, and re­assess the biodiversity impacts. When there are opinion conflicts between environmental experts and planning experts, conclusion of the assessment can also be expressed as propose to modify the planning, and submit to decision makers for thinking and making decisions.

2.6.4 Propose to Abandon the Planning If the proposed planning is deemed unfeasible eco­environmentally through biodiversity impact assessment, and may cause serious impacts on biodiversity conservation and ecosystems, such planning should be abandoned. This kind of situation seldom happens.

2.7 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation Analyze investments required for taking avoidance measures, prevention measures, recovery measures compensation measures, biodiversity management measures, biodiversity monitoring and research measures to handle biodiversity impacts involved in the regional development and planning; for biodiversity resources that are hard to be restored and protected, compensations should be paid to residents and collectives whose interests are affected, and relevant investments should be listed.

Estimation of investments on biodiversity conservation should be classified into investment on impact avoidance, prevention, recovery and compensation measures, biodiversity management investment, 51

biodiversity monitoring and research investment, investment on instruments, equipments and installation, compensation funding investment, investment on temporary environmental protection facilities, and independent costs. Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation should clarify the basis for cost standards and quotation. Estimate the total investment on biodiversity protection and develop annual investment allocation.

2.8 Public involvement Purposes of public involvement: ensure that different stakeholders’ opinions are voiced out and interests are met, and make the regional development and planning be smoothly implemented, and keep the society stable and united.

Public involvement involves all aspects of the assessment. See the figure of working procedure above for reference.

Ways of public involvement: discussion meeting, public hearing, interview and questionnaire; mass media, publicity on biodiversity conservation; issuance of public notice, setting up suggestion box, complaint box and network platform etc.

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3 Compilation of Biodiversity Impact Assessment Report for Regional Development and Planning EIA 3.1 Presentation Requirements of the Report Presentation of the report should have concise wording, illustrated texts and graphs, accurate data and figures, clear points of argumentation, sufficient grounds of argument, and explicitly clarified conclusion.

3.2 Outline of Biodiversity Impact Assessment Report for Regional Development and Planning EIA 1 General Principles 1.1 General background of regional development and planning 1.2 Environmental protection policies, objectives and criterion related to regional development and planning 2 Description and analysis of regional development and planning 2.1 Social­economic objectives and biodiversity conservation objectives of regional development and planning 2.2 Analysis on the coordination and relationship between the regional development and planning and its upper level and lower level plannings 2.3 Analysis on the relationship and coordination between the objectives of regional development and planning and the objectives of other planning and eco­environmental protection plans 3 Preliminary diagnoses of biodiversity impacts 3.1 Identification of impacting elements 3.2 Identification of impacted objects 3.3 Methods and conclusions of preliminary diagnosis of impacts 4 Survey and assessment on the current status of biodiversity 4.1 Survey on sensitive protection targets in the region 4.2 Survey on the historical changes, current status and main issues of ecosystems and biodiversity in the region 4.3 Assessment on the current status of biodiversity 5 Prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts 5.1 Purposes of prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts 5.2 The process, contents and methods of prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts 5.3 Conclusion of prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts 53

6 Mitigation measures for biodiversity impacts 7 Estimation of investments on biodiversity conservation 8 Public involvement 8.1 Overview of public involvement 8.2 Overview of expert consultancy and collected public comments and suggestions in relation to biodiversity impact assessment 8.3 Implementation situation of expert comments, public comments and suggestions 9 Conclusion of the assessment 10 Hardships and uncertainties 11 Conclusion of execution

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4 Implementation of Track Monitoring and Assessment Monitor biodiversity impacts following up to the implementation of regional development and planning, on the basis of developed monitoring program and utilizing existing biodiversity conservation benchmarks, law and regulations, and monitoring systems. Supervise biodiversity impacts after the implementation of regional development and planning through expert consultancy and public involvement.

Assess the real biodiversity impacts after the implementation of regional development and plan; evaluate whether the biodiversity impact assessment and mitigation measures recommended are effectively implemented or not; identify improvement measures required to further raise environmental and ecological effects of the regional development and planning; find out experiences and lessons learned from this biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning.

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Attachments Introduction to the Methods of Biodiversity Impact Assessment I. Presentation Method for Preliminary Diagnosis of Impacts: Checklist Impacts on the following objects (no or yes: serious, moderate, slight) Activities Rare and Endemic Species or Special Overall Terrestrial involved endangered species communities habitat biodiversity ecological in the species of ancient corridors planning origin

Surfaces Basic water farmland network areas

Historical and cultural sites

II. Introduction to Relevant Instructions and Methods for Assessment on Current Status 1. Indicator of Species Diversity (1) Endemic Species By investigating into national and local list of relevant species, find out the situation of endemic species in the planed region, including quantity and distribution.

(2) Species or Communities of Ancient Origin By investigating into national and local lists of species and history of ecosystem evolution, make clear the situation of ancient species and communities of ancient origin in the planned region, including quantity and distribution.

(3) Rare and Endangered Species Figure out the status of rare and endangered species, including quantity and distribution, in the planned region, through investigation into national and local lists of species, consultancy with experts, and interview with relevant local institutions and residents.

(4) Index of Species Abundance/Species Richness Make statistics on the number of species in the planned region, and figure out the spatial layout of species abundance, through investigation into national and local lists of relevant species. This index can also be calculated by the following mathematical formula: Species abundance index = Abio× (0.35×forest area + 0.21× grassland area + 0.28 × watering wetland area + 0.11 × farmland area + 0.04× construction land area + 0.01× unused land area)/ area of the region In the formula, Abio is the normalization coefficient of species abundance (it can be found in the non­pollution ecological impact assessment that the national normalization coefficient of species abundance is 101.41), however, there is no need to consider Abio when the calculation is only for the planned area with comparison with other areas.

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(5) Average species per unit area Average species per unit area = number of species / assessed area 2. Indicator of Habitat and Ecosystem Diversity (1) Habitat Diversity Find out habitat diversity in the assessed area, by applying RS and GIS technologies or referring to local eco­functional zoning and planning.

(2) Rareness of Habitat Figure out the rareness of habitat types in the assessed area, through comparison with habitat types in the world, the country or the assessed area.

(3) Vegetation Index Calculate vegetation index (NDVI) by remote sensing images, find out the high value area through NDVI, and have protection or ecological utilization. Making use of Chongqing’s TM remote sensing data every year, calculate the vegetation index of Chongqing according to the following formula: NDVI=（NIR­R）/（NIR+R） NDVI is the surface comprehensive vegetation index, NIR is the value of near­infrared band, and R is the value of infrared band. In real calculation, the value of NIR can be taken from BAND4 of TM remote sensing image, and the value of R can be taken from BAND3 of TM remote sensing image. They can also be directly obtained from product data.

The range of original NDVI value is between [­1，1], in order to visualize the data, this range has been redefined as [1, 15] with some changes of functions. Indicated in the calculation results, areas with higher value have better vegetation coverage, while those with lower value have worse vegetation coverage.

Classification should be done in line with realistic situation, and be prepared for use in the follow up impact assessment.

(4) Distribution Density of Ecological Corridors Find out the length of “green” vegetation corridors and “blue” water corridors by identifying their lengths per unit in the remote sensing images. Identify areas with high distribution density of ecological corridors to protect.

(5) The Proportion of Green Land Proportion of green land = the area of green land / the assessed area 3. Other Indicators (1) Density of Water Network Density of water network = Ariv × river length / assessed area ＋ Alak × lake reservoir area (coastal waters) / assessed area ＋ Ares × amount of water resource / assessed area Ariv, normalization coefficient of river length,

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Alak, normalization coefficient of lake reservoir area Ares, normalization coefficient of water resource amount (2) Proportion of Farmland Proportion of farmland = the area of farmland / the assessed area (3) Protection Targets of Cultural Landscape Find out protection targets of cultural landscape through interview with related departments.

III. Introduction to the Methods of Prediction Assessment on Impacts 1. Checklist The method of checklist is a kind of qualitative analysis method raised by Little and others in 1971.

1) Checklist The basic practice of checklist method is to list all the impacting elements of development and construction activities and all the environmental elements might be impacted in the same matrix. Analyze point by point, and elaborate the nature and intensity of every impact, thus to analyze the biodiversity impacts of development and construction activities. This method is simple and highly target­oriented, which is mainly used in identification of biodiversity impacts, selecting assessed elements, selecting biodiversity conservation measures, and identifying the importance of species and habitats or their priorities.

2) Application of Checklist (1) Identification of ecological environment and biodiversity impacts, selection of assessed elements (2) Analysis of impact effects on ecosystem elements due to construction activities of regional development and planning (3) Selection of biodiversity conservation measures (4) Comparison and selection of species or habitat importance or priorities 2. Ecological Graphics The method of ecological graphics is also known as graph overlay method, which is to overlay at least two pieces of ecological information graphics on one graph, making a compound graph to indicate the directions and extent of biodiversity changes and focus on the spatial conflict impacts. Features of this method are direct, vivid, simple and clear, but it cannot be used for precise quantitative analysis. There are two basic means to edit ecological graphics, one is indicator method, and the other is graphics overlay method. Conduct ecological graphics overlaying in computers not only save time and man power, but also can obtain direct and dynamic changes displayed.

1) Indicator method (1) Define the scope of assessed area.

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(2) Conduct surveys on ecological environment and biodiversity, collect natural and ecological information within assessed scope and in surrounding areas, and collect information about social economy, environmental pollution and environmental quality at the same time. In the specific biodiversity impact assessment for regional development and planning in Chongqing, materials such as “Chongqing Ecological Functional Zoning and Planning”, “Chongqing Species Resources” and “Chongqing List of Rare, Endangered and Endemic Species” can be collected for consultancy.

(3) Identify impacts and select elements to be assessed, including the identification and analysis of main eco­environmental and biodiversity issues.

(4) Study the geological distribution features and rules of biodiversity elements to be assessed, and establish indicator system that express the characteristics of issues about ecosystem, biodiversity elements and eco­environment. Entitle the weight to indicators and classify indicators through quantitative or qualitative methods, and make regional classification according to the values of indicators.

(5) Map the classification and zoning information on the ecological graphics.

2) Graph Overlaying (1) Transparent paper is used for base graphics traditionally, and the scope of base graphics is slightly larger than the scope of assessed area.

(2) Map major eco­environmental and biodiversity information on the base graphics, such as vegetation coverage, animal distribution, waterways, land utilization and specially protected targets etc.

(3) Identify impacts and select elements to be assessed.

(4) Develop transparent graphics to show the impact extent on element to be assessed, and use different colors and different color shades to indicate natures or types and extent of impacts.

(5) Overlay the graphics of impact elements with the base graphics, thus to obtain the biodiversity impact assessment graphics.

3) Application of Ecological Graphics (1) For quality assessment and impact assessment on regional eco­environment and biodiversity.

(2) For resource development and planning project constructions that have regional impacts.

(3) For land use and agricultural development and planning.

3. Matrix method for identification of impacts The following matrix can help to identify the ecological sensitivity of assessment indicators and the impact effects of regional development and planning. prominence Sensitivity of ecological receptors (e.g. special habitat, rare and endangered species)

High Medium Low

Intensity of ecological effects High Medium Extremely Very prominent prominent Very prominent Relatively prominent Relatively Not very prominent prominent

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low Relatively prominent Not very prominent Not slightly prominent

4．Method of ecological mechanism Animals, plants and their living environment constitute an organic integrity, when the growing environment of plants is impacted by the development of projects, the individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants will surely be impacted as well. Prediction procedures in line with ecological rationale are listed below: (1) Survey the current status of environmental background and collect relevant materials and data.

(2) Investigate the distribution of plants and animals, animal habitats and migration paths.

(3) Classify animals and plants into populations, communities and ecosystems in accordance with survey results, and describe their distribution characteristics, structural features and evolution successive stages.

(4) Identify whether there are rare and endangered species, or species with important economical, historical, scenery and scientific values.

(5) According to environmental changes (water, atmosphere, soil, and life components) after the implementation of such plans, analyze the evolution trend of animals, plants and ecosystems in the circumstances without any project construction, in order to predict the impacts on individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants, as well as the evolution trend of ecosystems.

5. Method of landscape ecology Landscape ecology evaluates the ecological quality status through two aspects, one is the analysis on spatial structure, and the other is the analysis on functions and stability. Since landscape ecology deems that the structure and function of landscape matches each other, and it is the basic principle of ecology and sociological holism to increase the heterogeneity and symbiosis of landscape.

Spatial structure analysis is based on landscape (a larger natural system above ecosystem), and spatial structure is clear and measurable. Landscape consists of substrates, patches and corridors, of which substrate is the background strata of landscape – the landscape component that can control the quality of environment. Therefore, identification of substrate is an important content of spatial structure analysis.

There are three standard indicators for substrate identification, namely relatively large area, high continuity and dynamic control functions. Substrate can be identified by the classified results from remote sensing images, or through regional vegetation map or land use map. The dominant degree of a certain patch within the landscape is also known as dominance (Do). Dominance is calculated from three parameters: relative density (Rd), frequency (Rf) and landscape proportion (Lp). The mathematical formula as follow: Rd= (the number of patch i/total patches) × l00％ Rf= (sample quadrats in patch i／total quadrats) × l00％ Lp= (the area of patch i／total area of sample quadrats）× 100％ Do=0.5 × [0.5 ×（Rd+Rf）+Lp] × 100% Through above analysis, the quantity and distribution of natural components in the regional ecological environment can be reflected, thus it can show the relatively accurate situation of ecological integrity.

Meanwhile it is able to reflect the landscape fragmentation situation after the implementation of such plans, thus to explain the continuity of migration corridors, integrity of habitats and whether the habitat area is adequate or not.

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6. Analogical analysis Analogy analysis is an often used assessment method for qualitative and semi­quantitative analysis, and generally there are analogies on overall eco­environment, ecological elements, eco­environmental issues etc. Analogical analysis is to analyze or predict potential biodiversity impacts that may caused by the construction activities (projects and engineering) of regional development and plan, on the basis of current biodiversity impacts caused by existing construction activities (projects and engineering) of regional development and planning. Since biodiversity and ecological impacts have the characteristics such as gradually progressive, accumulative, complicate and comprehensive, which make the cause­effect relations of many impacts complex, therefore it is a very important impact prediction and assessment method to survey and analyze the biodiversity impacts of existing projects, thus to analogically analyze the biodiversity impacts of planned projects. Proper selection of analogical targets (high similarity) is the basis of analogical analysis or prediction assessment, which is as well critical to the success of such method.

1) Methods of Analogy Analogical analysis is to analyze or predict potential eco­environmental and biodiversity impacts that may caused by regional development and planning activities, on the basis of current eco­environmental and biodiversity impacts caused by existing regional development and planning activities. Requirements for the selection of analogical targets are as follow: the nature, process and scale of the project should be similar to the planned project; the region with implemented development and planning is similar to the region with future development and plans; similar eco­environmental conditions (geography, geological, climate etc.) and biodiversity background value; the development and planning has been implemented for a certain period of time with all impacts being realized basically. Once the analogical targets are identified, the analogical elements and indicators should be selected and defined as well (indicators could be selected from recommendations in this Guideline, or they could be reduced or added or selected elsewhere according to the real situation). Then conduct investigation into and assessment on analogical targets, and analyze the differences between the analogical targets and the planned projects. Make conclusion according to the analogical analysis.

2) Application of Analogical Method (1) Identification and selection of biodiversity impacts and assessment elements.

(2) Assessment on eco­environmental quality, taking primitive ecosystem as the analogical target.

(3) Qualitative analysis and assessment on eco­environment and biodiversity impacts.

(4) Prediction of the occurrence and development trend as well as harms of eco­environmental and biodiversity issues.

(5) Identification of environmental protection targets, and the pursuance of most effective and feasible measures for the protection of eco­environment and biodiversity.

7．Index method and comprehensive index method Index method is the prescriptive assessment method by the EIA for construction projects, which can be applied in biodiversity impact assessment as well. Index method is simple and compendious, and similar to the method of environmental pollution impact assessment acquainted by people. However, the hard point of index method is to establish criterion system indicating biodiversity and ecological quality, which is hard to be weighed or accurately quantified.

1) Single­element index method

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Select appropriate assessment standards, collect current data in the area to be assessed, and conduct assessment on the current status of eco­environment and biodiversity. For instance, take the forest coverage rate under same type local conditions as the standard to assess the vegetation coverage situation in the regional development and planning areas. This method can also be applied in prediction assessment on eco­environment and biodiversity elements. For example, take current vegetation coverage in assessed area as the standard, and conduct prediction assessment on the change of vegetation coverage after the implementation of regional development and planning.

2) Comprehensive index method (1) Analyze the characteristics and changing rules of biodiversity elements studied and assessed.

(2) Establish the indicator system reflecting characteristics of biodiversity elements.

(3) Define assessment standards.

(4) Set up assessment function curve, and transform the current status value (prior to regional development and project construction) and predicted value (after the regional development and project construction) of ecological environment and biodiversity elements into the dimensionless quality indicator for ecological environment. Utilize the range 1~0 to indicate the quality (“1” stands for the best, superior, primitive or little human disturbed ecological environment and biodiversity; “0” stands for the worst, extremely destroyed ecological environment and biodiversity with little biological signs. This classification actually defines the quality standards of ecological environment.) , and calculate the changing value of biodiversity elements before and after the implementation of regional development and planning.

(5) Entitle the weight to each element according to their relative importance.

(6) Integrate the changing value of all elements, thus to put forward the comprehensive impact assessment value, as below n

DE = å ( Ehi - Eqi ) ´ Wi i =1

In the formula: D E ­ changing value of biodiversity elements before and after the implementation of regional development and planning;

Eh i ­ Quality indicator of element i after the implementation of regional development and planning; Eq i ­ Quality indicator of element i before the implementation of regional development and planning; W i ­ The weight of element i.

3) Application of index method (1) For quality assessment of eco­environment and single biodiversity element (2) For comprehensive quality assessment of eco­environment and multi­biodiversity elements (3) For ecosystem functional assessment.

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Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Tourism Development Projects

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Contents 1 General Principles....................................................................................................................................68 1.1 Theme .................................................................................................................................................68 1.2 Scope of Application...........................................................................................................................68 1.3 Assessment Principles.........................................................................................................................68 1.4 Classification of Assessment Ranks ...................................................................................................68 1.5 Scope of Assessment...........................................................................................................................69 1.6 Assessment Objects.............................................................................................................................69 1.7 Process Flow of Assessment Work .....................................................................................................69 1.8 Basis of Assessment............................................................................................................................70 2 Normative References..............................................................................................................................72 3 Terms.........................................................................................................................................................73 4 Engineering Investigation and Analysis of Tourism Development Projects .......................................75 4.1 Collection of Project Data...................................................................................................................75 4.2 Engineering Analysis ..........................................................................................................................75 5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity for Tourism Development Project ..76 5.1 Survey on Current Status ....................................................................................................................76 5.1.1 Survey requirements ....................................................................................................................76 5.1.2 Contents of survey .......................................................................................................................76 5.1.3 Survey methods............................................................................................................................77 5.2 Assessment of Current Status..............................................................................................................77 6 Biodiversity Impact Prediction and Assessment for Tourism Development Project..........................79 6.1 Requirements of Impact Prediction and Assessment ..........................................................................79 6.2 Methods for Impact Prediction and Assessment .................................................................................79 6.3 Scope of Impact Prediction and Assessment.......................................................................................79 6.4 Impact Prediction and Analysis ..........................................................................................................79 6.5 Prediction and Assessment of Periodic Impacts..................................................................................79 6.6 Direct Impact and Indirect Impact ......................................................................................................80 6.7 Accumulative Impact ..........................................................................................................................80 6.7.1 Accumulative impact ...................................................................................................................80 6.7.2 Identification of accumulative impact..........................................................................................80 6.7.3 Forms of accumulative impact.....................................................................................................81 6.8 Contents of Impact Prediction and Assessment ..................................................................................81 6.9 Extent of Impacts on Biodiversity and Basis of Determination..........................................................82 7 Mitigating Conservation of Biodiversity and Residual Impacts..........................................................83 7.1 Types of Mitigation Measures.............................................................................................................83 7.1.1 Avoidance.....................................................................................................................................83 7.1.2 Mitigation.....................................................................................................................................83 66

7.1.3 Restoration ...................................................................................................................................83 7.1.4 Compensation ..............................................................................................................................83 7.2 Alternative Planning for Accumulative Impact Mitigation and Conservation ....................................83 7.3 Residual Impact ..................................................................................................................................84 8 Biodiversity Monitoring ..........................................................................................................................85 8.1 Monitoring Types................................................................................................................................85 8.2 Development of Monitoring Planning ................................................................................................85 9 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation and Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts.........................................................................................................................................................86 9.1 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation .........................................................................86 9.2 Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts ...................................................................................86 10 Public involvement.................................................................................................................................87 11 Assessment Conclusions.........................................................................................................................88 12 Appendices..............................................................................................................................................89

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1 General Principles 1.1 Theme This Guideline stipulates the general principles, working processes, working methods, working contents and requirements for biodiversity impact assessment of tourism development projects.

1.2 Scope of Application This Guideline is applicable to biodiversity impact assessment in the EIA for tourism development projects and plans, especially for nature reserves, forest parks and scenic parks with biodiversity of high protection value.

1.3 Assessment Principles (1) The principle of attaching balanced importance to key points and integrity: focuses should be given to important areas for biodiversity conservation, while the integrity of the assessed project should be maintained as a whole.

(2) The principle of adopting both quantitative methodology and qualitative methodology: quantitative methods are preferred for description and analysis in biodiversity impact assessment. When quantitative methods are not applicable, qualitative and analogy methodology can be applied in description and analysis.

(3) The principle of adopting both preventive and recovery measures: take preventative measures as the major methodology, and recovery compensation measures as supporting methodology.

(4) The principle of being practical and feasible: assessment indicator data is easy to collect; assessment methods are simple and efficient; and biodiversity conservation measures are feasible.

1.4 Classification of Assessment Ranks (1) Basis of assessment ranking: with full considerations given to nature reserves, forest parks, critical ecological­areas and habitat sensitivities, the latest Chongqing Ecological Functional Zoning and Planning has formulated Chongqing Biodiversity Conservation Importance Map in (see appendix A). Therefore, the classification of biodiversity impact assessment ranks for tourism development projects can be based on the ranking of protection levels defined in the Map, as well as the size of the development projects. See Table 1.1 for classification of biodiversity impact assessment ranks for tourism development projects.

Table 1.1 Classification of Biodiversity Impact Assessment Ranks for Tourism Development Projects Development Size Biodiversity protection level Important area Moderate important area Slightly important area Non­important area

Size > 30km 2

Size 10­30km 2

Size < 10km 2

Or length > 50km I I II III

Or length 30­50km I I II III

Or length < 30km I II III III

(2) Adjustment of assessment ranks: for special areas, assessment ranks can be properly adjusted based on project characteristics, the extent of biodiversity sensitivities, features of project construction, environmental features, national and local laws and regulations, however, assessment rank should not be adjusted to the level above rank I, and justifications should be given.

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1.5 Scope of Assessment The biodiversity impact assessment shall fully reflect the ecological integrity in the project area and surrounding areas, including space for all the activities and an extension distance. The extension distance is decided by the direction that important assessed ecological elements are impacted. Refer to the Technical Guidelines for Ecological Environment Assessment issued by MEP for the scope of assessment.

1.6 Assessment Objects (1) Ecosystem Naturally distributed terrestrial ecosystem and freshwater ecosystem, excluding artificial ecosystem (e.g. botanical garden, plantation or grazing pasture, farmland, vegetable land and orchard) and marine ecosystem, but large areas of planted forests and shelter forests can be included.

(2) Animals Animals herein refer to wild mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and freshwater fishes, excluding artificially bred or captive­bred animals.

(3) Plants Plants herein include wild ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms, excluding artificially planted or domesticated plants, however, planted forests that largely distributed in the wild and local weeds growing in farmland can be included.

1.7 Process Flow of Assessment Work See Table 1.1:

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Launch of biodiversity impact assessment for tourism development project

Data collection and collation

Project investigation and analysis

Identify assessment ranks and scope

Current status survey on biodiversity

Assessment on current status of biodiversity

Prediction of biodiversity impact Public involvement Mitigation measures and residual impacts on biodiversity

Assessment conclusions

Editing report books, sections or justifications

Follow­up monitoring and assessment

Figure 1.1 Flow Chart of Biodiversity Impact Assessment

1.8 Basis of Assessment (1) Objectives, measures and requirements stipulated in laws, regulations, policies and plans published nationally, industrially and locally concerning ecology, environment, tourism and biodiversity conservation.

(2) Biodiversity background value or baseline value in the assessed project area or similar areas.

(3) Analogy of real impacts caused by exiting projects with similar characteristics, size and regional biodiversity.

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(4) Comments from experts in related fields, administrative departments and the general public.

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2 Normative References HJ/T2.1 – 93 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – General Outline HJ/T130 – 2009 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment of Plans HJ/T19­1997 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – Non­pollution Ecological Impacts LY/T 1814 – 2009 Specifications for Biodiversity Investigation in Nature Reserves Chongqing Ecological Functional Zoning and Planning (2009) Chongqing Tourism Regulations (2006)

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3 Terms (1) Tourism development: through proper use of financial resources and technologies, and by scientific investigation, assessment, plan and construction, tourism development is to utilize undeveloped resources and further deepen the utilization of developed resources according to the conditions of natural resources.

The purpose of tourism development is to establish, improve, develop and raise tourism in a certain area, thus to promote the integral development of tourism industry. Tourism development is an integrated and systematic regional development, mainly including the development of strategy, plan and infrastructure constructions.

(2) Biodiversity: the stable ecological complex composed of various life forms (including animals, plants and microorganisms) integrating under certain rules within a given area. Biodiversity usually consists of ecosystem diversity, species diversity and gene diversity.

(3) Biodiversity conservation level: the ranking of biodiversity conservation in different areas in line with the regional conditions of nature reserves, forest parks, critical ecological areas, habitat sensitivities, quantity and distribution of rare species etc. for instance, it can be classified into important area for biodiversity conservation, moderate important area, slightly important area and non­important area.

(4) Tourism infrastructure: the total of tangible facilities constructed to meet the needs of tourists. It is the necessary material foundation for tourism development, which includes restaurants, hotels, transportation conditions, and all kinds of facilities for entertainment, sports and recreation.

(5) Habitat Fragmentation: the originally connected habitat being cut, broken, scattered and isolated by human construction activities.

(6) Endangered species: species defined as critically endangered (CR), endangered (EN), vulnerably endangered (VU), and Near Threatened (NT) in IUCN Red List (Rev. 3.1).

(7) Abundance of wild higher animals: recorded quantity of species within the assessed area, including wild mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and freshwater fishes (whenever there is sub­species, the taxonomical unit should be sub­species, the same for both endemic and threatened wild higher animals), describing the diversity of wild animals.

(8) Abundance of plants: recorded quantity of plant species within the assessed area (whenever there is taxonomical unit bellow species, including sub­species, varieties and variants, then adopt those as the unit), describing the diversity of plants.

(9) Ecosystem diversity: the types of natural or semi­natural ecosystems in the assessed area based on the types of vegetations, describing the diversity of ecosystems.

(10) Endemism of species: the relative quantities of wild higher plants and animals those are endemic nationally or locally in the assessed area, describing the special value of species.

(11) Invasion extent of alien species: the ratio between alien invasive species and local wild higher plants and animals, describing the extent of disturbance by alien invasive species.

(12) Accumulative impact: the accumulated impacts on environment when an activity is connected to its past and foreseeable future.

(13) Approach of accumulative impact: environmental impacts accumulate along as time goes or as the space scope enlarges by adding together or simultaneously.

(14) Mitigation measures: measures used to avoid, mitigate, recover or compensate the negative environmental impacts that maybe caused by the implementation of project.

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(15) Residual impacts: impacts remained after the implementation of mitigation measures, which are hard to be observed evidently at the beginning of assessment, but will emerge as they accumulate gradually.

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4 Engineering Investigation and Analysis of Tourism Development Projects 4.1 Collection of Project Data (1) Plan and design documents of the project, including project location, scale and type, and design documents and contents etc.

(2) Plot plan of the project, on which surface conditions (topography and landscape, waters, vegetation type and distribution, major animal communities etc.), distribution of surrounding townships, factories and large structures, transportation plan, and boundary of assessed area should be illustrated.

4.2 Engineering Analysis (1) Briefly describe and analyze the project to be constructed, including the contents of land size, implementation plan, duration, construction method and process, as well as operational features. Focus of the analysis is implementation plan, containing tourism projects (tourist attractions, i.e. landscape project, which are directly related to the activities of tourists), tourist lines, infrastructure projects (road transportation, power supply projects, water supply projects etc.), public service facilities (deployment of catering facilities, deployment of shopping places, accommodation etc.), and construction projects for environmental protection (environmental sanitary projects and safety projects).

(2) Investigate and analyze similar projects. Assessment rank I requires investigation into similar projects and analogy of similar projects.

(3) Analyze the way biodiversity is impacted by construction measures during the construction period, mainly including the changes of habitat, vegetation, topography and landscape caused by construction activities of workers and the use of mechanical equipments.

(4) Analyze how biodiversity is impacted during the operational period, referring to the changes of animal and plant habitats as the space structure, land and water use will be changed due to the operation of projects.

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5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity for Tourism Development Project 5.1 Survey on Current Status 5.1.1 Survey requirements Surveys on the current status of biodiversity are the grounds and basis for assessments on biodiversity status and impact predictions. Contents and indicators being surveyed should reflect background characteristics of biodiversity and the existing major issues in the project affected areas. Surveys vary in accordance with different assessment ranks. Such surveys should include field work based on data and materials collected, and the scope of survey should not be less than the scope of assessment.

5.1.2 Contents of survey (1) Contents of survey include natural conditions, ecosystem diversity, animal diversity, plant diversity and the situation of disturbance in and around the project area, and contents can be various according to the assessment ranks of specific project.

For natural conditions, the geological location, topography and landscape, and conditions of climate, hydrology and soil must be clearly identified.

For ecosystem diversity, the types, quantity, size and distribution of ecosystems in the project area must be clarified.

For animal diversity, the following items must be made clear: species, quantity, distribution, habits and habitat of animals; major factors affecting the survival of animals; the species, quantity and distribution size of nationally or provincially protected endemic, rare and endangered animals; the quantity and distribution of targeted species.

For plant diversity, the following items must be made clear: species, quantity, distribution and habitat situation of plants; the species, quantity and distribution size of nationally or provincially protected endemic, rare and endangered plants; vegetation use and damage situation.

For the situation of disturbance, the natural or man­made disturbing elements, extent and results in the project area must be identified.

(2) Focuses of the survey should be given to animals and plants listed in National/Provincial List of Wild Animals/Plants under Key Protection, or those endemic ones; species listed in CITES and other conservation conventions and agreements; species with important economic values; species with significant scientific value and cultural value; as well as ecosystem composed by important wild animals and plants.

(3) Graphs attached Graphs or maps should be able to reflect the overview of natural resource in the project area integrally and systematically, including items of: project location map, vegetation map, forest distribution map, hydrological map, distribution map of wild animals under national key protection, and distribution map of wild plants under national key protection. Items can be increased or reduced according to specific requirements of different assessment ranks. See appendix B for mapping or graph developing requirements.

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5.1.3 Survey methods Survey methods include filed investigation, desktop analysis, positioned or semi­positioned observation, data collection from maps, air photos and satellite photos, as well as data collection and consultancy with relevant departments.

See appendix C for the preparation and methods of biodiversity surveys.

5.2 Assessment of Current Status (1) Assessment of current status is to analyze biodiversity characteristics and space distribution rules, and assess the current status and development trend of biodiversity, on the basis of biodiversity surveys in the development area, and in accordance to the features of habitat in the development area. Assessment of current status must identify biodiversity problems and their causes in the development area, analyze the historical evolution of biodiversity and focus on important problems in the development area.

For assessment rank I and II, it is required in principle to demonstrate estimated data by qudrat and site smapling and by remote sensing.

(2) Contents and requirements of assessment on current status The current status assessments for tourism development projects include the current status of ecosystem diversity and species diversity. Indicators such as ecosystem types, habitat fragmentation extent, and intensity of disturbances can be selected to assess the diversity of ecosystem; while indicators such as plants abundance, abundance of wild higher animals, species endemism, species endangerment and invasion extent of alien species can be selected to assess the diversity of species. See appendix D for biodiversity impact assessment indicators. Development projects at different assessment ranks should select indicators that can reflect the typical features of biodiversity in the project area. See table 5.1 for indicators of current status assessment and requirements of indicator quantities.

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Table 5.1 Current status assessment indicators and requirements of indicator quantities for biodiversity impact assessment of tourism development projects

Diversity of ecosystem types

Natural or semi­natural ecosystem types based on vegetation types

Requirement of indicator quantities for different ranks Project at rank I: 3 indicators;

Habitat fragmentation

Situation of island habitat and habitat fragments due to the damages of construction activities

Project at rank II: 2­3 indicators;

Intensity of disturbance

The ratio of the total length of corridor within a certain habitat and the size of the Project at rank III: 1­2 indicators. habitat

Assessment Assessment No. aspect indicators

1

Ecosystem diversity

Abundance of wild plants Abundance of wild higher animals 2

Species diversity

Species endemism Species endangerment Invasion extent of alien species.

Assessment contents

Number of plant species Number of wild mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and freshwater species Relative quantity of wild higher plant and animals endemic nationally or locally Global rare and endangered species, plants listed in Class I, II and III under national key protection, and the situation of rare and endangered species regionally The ratio between alien invasive species and local wild higher animals and plants

Project at rank I: 5 indicators; Project at rank II: 3­4 indicators; Project at rank III: 1­2 indicators.

(3) Methods of current status assessment Quantitative methods and qualitative methods can be jointly adopted in the analysis of biodiversity current status. Advanced methods and technologies such as remote sensing and GIS should be fully utilized in the assessment. Specific methods include: ecological mechanism, landscape ecology, remote sensing, analogy etc.

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6 Biodiversity Impact Prediction and Assessment for Tourism Development Project 6.1 Requirements of Impact Prediction and Assessment (1) Assessment rank I focuses on the characteristics and scope of impacts, and assesses the impacts on ecosystem diversity caused by project construction, involving 2­4 typical assessment indicators.

(2) Assessment rank II focuses on analyzing the continuity and certainty of impacts, and assesses the impacts of project construction on ecosystem and species diversity, involving 5­7 typical assessment indicators.

(3) On the basis of assessment rank II, rank III emphasizes the causality and severity of such impacts, and assesses the accumulative and residual impacts potentially caused by project construction, which involves 8 typical assessment indicators.

6.2 Methods for Impact Prediction and Assessment Common, mature and simple methods that can accurately meet requirements are favored in biodiversity impact prediction and assessment. The most commonly used methods include hierarchical analysis, checklist, overlaying of graphs, analogical analysis etc. See appendix E for more details.

6.3 Scope of Impact Prediction and Assessment The size and shape of prediction and assessment scope are decided by the rank of assessment and the characteristics of project and environment, as well as the existence and extent of accumulative impacts. For prediction and assessment on accumulative impacts, the working scope is composed by time and space; from the perspective of time range, impacts occurred in the past must be included; and in terms of space, it should be extended to the scope where no obvious impacts on biodiversity will be observed anymore.

6.4 Impact Prediction and Analysis Analyze and predict the potential impacts on biodiversity, on the basis of surveys and assessments on biodiversity status, as well as the project implementation plan. Contents describing the characteristics of impacts include natures of impact, impact scope and extent, continuity, certainty, causality and severity of impact. Use quantitative or semi­quantitative methods to describe the changing extent of impacts. Changes that are impossible to be quantified should be determined by expert evaluation, or background comparison and analysis can be adopted to determine, by an integrated comparison of historical maps and graphs.

See appendix F for biodiversity impact prediction and assessment table for tourism development projects.

6.5 Prediction and Assessment of Periodic Impacts Projects are usually implemented by 3 phases, i.e. construction preparation phase, construction phase and operational phase. Various impacts on biodiversity will occur in different phases, of which impacts occurred in construction and operational phases are the largest. See appendix G for the prediction and assessment of periodic impacts.

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6.6 Direct Impact and Indirect Impact (1) Direct Impact Direct impacts on biodiversity in tourism development activities are mainly caused by the project, and some are caused by supporting projects. The change of land use, landscape structure such as the change of size, shape and connectivity, will cause direct impacts on species diversity. The loss of habitat will directly make the habitat irrecoverable, or destroy of habitat and change of habitat features will cause some or all wild species unable to inhabit and reproduce.

Theories of island biological geography can be borrowed to predict the extent of impacts on landscape structure and pattern. See appendix H for more details. See appendix I for buffering distance of impacts on different animals and plants caused by buildings and human activities. See appendix J for the ranking table of ecosystem sensitivity in Chongqing.

(2) Indirect Impact When biological creatures cannot make full use of their habitats due to the construction or operation of development projects, the normal growth and reproduction of those creatures will be hindered, causing impacts on biodiversity. The construction of tourism facilities, e.g. roads and buildings, will have indirect impacts on surrounding environment and biodiversity.

6.7 Accumulative Impact 6.7.1 Accumulative impact When an activity is connected to its past and foreseeable future, the impacts on environment will be increased, which is known as accumulative impact. When the environmental impact of one project is joined by that of another project, or the environmental impacts of several projects appear to be too frequent in time or condensed in space, as the impacts of each project cannot be eliminated timely, then accumulative impact will occur.

6.7.2 Identification of accumulative impact When identifying, it is not necessary to analyze all the potential accumulative impacts associated with development projects, and considerations should be mainly given to those serious regional or partial impacts. Questions listed below are helpful for the identification of potential accumulative impacts associated with development projects.

(1) Whether the environmental resources and biodiversity value affected by development projects are clearly defined by laws and regulations as protection targets? How significant is the biodiversity there?

(2) In the project area, whether there was/is/will be similar project development activities in the past/currently/or in the future?

(3) Will there be impacts on biodiversity when the planned project joins with other activities?

(4) Is there any similar construction project completed recently, or any that being constructed in short distance?

(5) Does the planned project potentially have accumulative issues as below: reduction of ecosystem and species diversity; loss of natural habitat; change of land use, or habitat fragmentation caused by infrastructure construction?

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6.7.3 Forms of accumulative impact Types of accumulative impacts are defined by the time and space features in the process of accumulating.

Major forms of accumulative impacts are list below: (1) Compound impact: the impacts on biodiversity caused by several same or similar projects usually excess the impacts of single project.

(2) Impacts at lowest limitation and saturation limitation: when environmental elasticity reaches a certain critical state, biodiversity will reduces by large margin.

(3) Induce impact and indirect impact: a project plan usually arouses many developments and infrastructure constructions.

(4) Congestion impact of time and space: when there is yet enough time and space to offset the impacts caused by one project, the development of another project begins.

6.8 Contents of Impact Prediction and Assessment The contents of impact prediction and assessment for tourism development project are corresponded to those of current status assessment, involving assessments of ecosystem diversity and species diversity as listed below: (1) Based on the analysis of assessment indicators, by analyzing the extent, scope and duration of impacts, predict the changing trend of biodiversity prior to/post the implementation of project, and decide whether those changes (e.g. reduction or loss of species, damage of habitat) are acceptable or not.

(2) When importantly protected species extinct or habitats are damaged, and compensative protection measures are required, the possibility to compensate the impacts and the recoverability of biodiversity must be elaborated.

(3) Predict and assess the impact extent on major sensitive targets (e.g. rare and endangered species and endemic species), as well as feasible approaches and measures to mitigate impacts and protect sensitive targets.

(4) Predict and analyze accumulative impacts on biodiversity caused by constructed projects, planned projects and activities in operation phase, and assess the extent and acceptability of the accumulative impacts. The extent of impacts can be described as negative impacts, moderate negative impacts, serious negative impacts, positive impacts and none impacts. See table 6.1 for prediction & analysis of accumulative impacts on biodiversity and assessment results.

Table 6.1 Prediction & Analysis of Accumulative Impacts on Biodiversity and Assessment Results Biodiversity Impact Assessment Project

Completed Project

Planned Project

Activities in operation phase

Extent of accumulative impact

Ecosystem diversity Species diversity (5) Analysis of accumulative impact uncertainties Due to inadequacy or inaccuracy of basic materials and data, as well as the complexity of accumulative impacts, it is hard to fully consider the approaches and effects of such accumulation, thus uncertainties of accumulative impacts will occur. In order to mitigate negative impacts caused uncertainties, the prediction and assessment incline to select results with greater negative accumulative impacts, get relatively 81

conservative conclusions on accumulative impact assessment, and recommend mitigation and monitoring measures, including measure to assess and manage accumulative effects realistically occur in the future, thus to ensure the efficiency of mitigation measures in future practice.

6.9 Extent of Impacts on Biodiversity and Basis of Determination According to the impacts of tourism development projects on biodiversity, the extent of impacts are classified into 5 ranks, i.e. no impact basically, slight impact, medium impact, lager impact, severe impact.

See table 6.2 for the basis of determination.

Table 6.2 Extent of Impacts on Biodiversity and the Basis of Determination Extent of impacts on biodiversity No impact basically

Slight impact

Medium impact

Larger impact

Severe impact

Basis of determination Interim damages or disturbances on a certain aspect of biodiversity caused by project construction. Such damages or disturbances can automatically and rapidly recover, and the reproduction, reconstruction and alternation can be easily done with artificial methods.

Slight harms or interim damages on a certain aspect of biodiversity caused by project construction, and the reproduction, restoration and reconstruction can be achieved by natural or artificial methods.

Harms or damages on a certain aspect of biodiversity caused by project construction, though the alternation or recovery is possible, the cost might be high.

Severe and long­term damages on a certain aspect of biodiversity caused by project construction, which would be very hard and expensive to alternate, recover and reconstruct.

Permanent irreversible damages on a certain aspect of biodiversity caused by project construction, which equals to extinction, e.g. the extinction of threatened bio­groups.

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7 Mitigating Conservation of Biodiversity and Residual Impacts 7.1 Types of Mitigation Measures 7.1.1 Avoidance Totally eliminate the impacts by stopping a certain action or part of the action in the planning phase of the development project, thus to eliminate potential damages at the source. Avoidance measures should be adopted when one or several of the following circumstances occur.

(1) In designated areas and protected areas nationally or internationally (e.g. nationally protected area, nature reserve, internationally important bird habitat etc.)

(2) When large amount of species or bio­groups with significant protection values observed in the impact assessment.

(3) New species with scientific significance, which is hard to predict due to lack of relevant data and information.

7.1.2 Mitigation Taking restrictive actions to minimize the extent of inevitable impacts, e.g. build corridors for wild animals to mitigate habitat fragmentation caused by construction roads. Mitigation measures include but not limited to: good management practice at construction site; control of waste gas emission; noise barrier; shelter; controlled evaluation during the project construction and operation phases; bridges, tunnel or ecological corridors for wild animals; protective fence for wild animals and plants; trans­plant important vegetation in affected area.

7.1.3 Restoration Remedy or restore interim impacts occurred in construction phase, thus to return the biodiversity to its original state as much as possible. Restoration measures include: change the top soil temporarily used or at the excavated area; restore with local vegetations in temporarily affected areas; use the original materials retained or stored in construction period to restore river bed, rock patch and other natural features.

7.1.4 Compensation Measures adopted when importantly protect species extinct or habitats are irreversibly damaged, to make up the impacts. The least proportion of compensation for lost habitat is 1:1. Compensations are classified as in­situ compensation and ex­situ compensation according to the selection of different compensation sites. In­situ compensation is to compensate important species and habitats in the affected area or nearby, and habitat condition of the compensation location will decide the effect of compensation. When in­situ compensation is not feasible or insufficient to mitigate the impact to acceptable extent, ex­situ compensation should be adopted, especially when ex­situ compensation appears to have greater biodiversity conservation values.

7.2 Alternative Plan for Accumulative Impact Mitigation and Conservation If the planned project has accumulative impacts, targeted mitigation measures must be recommended following the analysis on through which approach accumulative impacts will have the largest effects, including the selection of alternative plan and proposal of new alternative plan. Alternative plan for mitigation measures should be determined by comprehensively comparing the accumulative impacts of construction plan and alternative plan, and choose the plan with less accumulative impacts.

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7.3 Residual Impact For rare and endangered species and importantly protected species in particular, whether there will be residual impacts after the implementation of mitigation measures must be analyzed, and the extent and scope of residual impacts should be predicted as well, in order to provide grounds and basis for the improvement of mitigation measures and the selection of alternative plans.

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8 Biodiversity Monitoring 8.1 Monitoring Types According to different monitoring purposes and targets, biodiversity monitoring is classified into baseline monitoring, impact monitoring and acceptance monitoring.

(1) Baseline monitoring is usually conducted before the project implementation. Monitoring contents involve the status and changes of habitat, vegetation, animal populations prior to the project.

(2) Impact monitoring is to measure the status of habitats, vegetations and animal populations in the project construction and operation phases. The monitoring data can be used to assess changes through different phases of the project.

(3) Acceptance monitoring is the measurement and evaluation of specific environmental parameters and targeted species periodically and continuously conducted in different phases of the project.

8.2 Development of Monitoring Plan Monitoring plan and its implementation plan shall be developed once the monitoring contents and methods are identified. Contents of such plan include: biodiversity monitoring requirements; important monitoring objects; biodiversity monitoring methods; and monitoring implementation plan.

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9 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation and Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts 9.1 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation Analyze investments needed for biodiversity impacts mitigation measures, preventive measures, restoration measures, compensation measures, management measures, and investments needed to meet monitoring and research requirements; for biodiversity resources that are hard to recover and protect, compensations should be given to local residents and groups whose interests are infringed, and corresponding investments should be listed.

Estimation of investments on biodiversity conservation should be classified into impact mitigation, prevention, restoration and compensation investment, biodiversity management investment, biodiversity monitoring and research investment, investment on instruments, equipments and installation, investment on compensation funding, investment on temporary environmental protection facilities, and other independent costs. Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation should clarify the basis for cost standards and price quotation. Estimate the total investment on environmental protection and develop annual investment allocation.

9.2 Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts Cost­benefit analysis of biodiversity impacts should include cost analysis, economic benefit analysis and major conclusions.

Economic cost analysis of biodiversity impacts should include investment on environmental protection to avoid and mitigate negative environmental impacts, and biodiversity loss caused by such development projects.

Economic benefits of biodiversity refer to social, economic and environmental benefits resulted from positive biodiversity impacts caused by development projects, and benefits gained after adoption of environmental protection measures.

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10 Public involvement 10.1 Public involvement is a kind of mutual communication and exchange between construction organization and the public, thus to make the project argumentation more scientific and reasonable, and ensure the legal rights and interests of the public, groups and organizations in the project area. “Public” in this definition is a broad concept, including project affected people, relevant groups, institutions and units.

10.2 The purpose of Public involvement is to consider and compensate opinions and interests of all related groups directly or indirectly affected by the project, by effective negotiation with the public. Hearing comments of the public is a kind of respect to the rights of the public, and will help to reduce issues against the project construction. Therefore, Public involvement is an effective way to raise the social and environmental effects of the project.

10.3 Usually environmental impact assessment institutions sent out questionnaires to project affected people, or conduct interview with them, and consolidate and analyze the comments of interviewees, and feedback to construction organization or design institutions. Government environmental administrative departments, project construction organizations and environmental impact assessment institutions can jointly or separately organize public hearings, through which to introduce project overview, environmental conditions of the area directly impacted by the project, expected environmental impacts and preventive measures to the public, thus to receive queries from the public, and fully consider the comments raised by all parties.

10.4 Dealing with Public Comments (1) The structural condition and representative people within a certain area can be reflected in the statistics results of basic information of surveyed people, providing basic data for analysis of survey results.

(2) The proportion of people with different views can be inferred from the survey results, thus to know the public’s attitude towards the planned project in a certain area.

(3) In accordance with the real situation learned through the survey, analyze the reasonability of public comments, providing basis for the solution of environmental issues.

(4) Adopting statistics analysis to get integrated and objective conclusions. Adhere to the principle of being authentic and objective when analyzing, fake data is absolutely forbidden.

(5) Emphasize the public intentions in directly affected areas, and reduce negative impacts caused by the project as much as possible.

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11 Assessment Conclusions 11.1 Define principles and requirements of writing conclusions. See industrial standards HJ/T2.1—93 (Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – General Outline) 11.2 Conclusion of biodiversity impact assessment should select the following three ways to express: (1) Development and construction of the project have basically no impact or slight impacts on biodiversity, thus recommend adopting the project construction plan; (2) Development and construction of the project have medium impacts or larger impacts on biodiversity, thus recommend revising the project construction plan; (3) Development and construction of the project have severe impacts on biodiversity, thus recommend abandoning the project construction plan.

11.3 Adequate attention and enough space must be given to mitigation and conservation measures in the conclusion.

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12 Appendices Appendix A (documentary appendix) Significance Assessment Map for Chongqing Biodiversity Conservation

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Appendix B (documentary appendix) Requirements of Mapping and Graph Editing B.1 Biodiversity impact assessment maps and graphs should be able to accurately and clearly reflect major contents of assessment. Mapping scale should not be lower than the requirements listed in table B.1. If the mapping scope is too large to clearly reflect the major contents of assessment, the graphs/maps can be divided into portions linked by points, lines and slides; when sensitive ecological targets are involved, separate graphs should be made to raise imaging precision.

B.2 Maps and graphs are required to comply with specifications of cartography. The following items should be clearly indicated on the maps or graphs: title, scale, direction mark (for maps with scale lower than 1: 500,000, graticule should be adopted), legends, notes, data sources (survey data, experimental data, remote sensing data, or others), producing date etc; if graticule is adopted to show directions, coordinates parameters shall be noted as well.

Table B.1 Requirements and Specifications of Mapping Scales Assessment scope

Size

＞1000km 2 100～1000 km 2 50～100 km 2 10～50 km 2 ＜10 km 2

Mapping scale Assessment Rank I ≥1：100,000 ≥1：50,000 ≥1：50,000 ≥1：10,000 ≥1：5000

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Assessment Rank II ≥1：250,000 ≥1：100,000 ≥1：50,000 ≥1：10,000 ≥1：5000

Assessment Rank III ≥1：250,000 ≥1：100,000 ≥1：100,000 ≥1：50,000 ≥1：10,000

Appendix C (documentary appendix) Preparation and Methods for Biodiversity Survey C.1 Survey Preparation C.1.1 Team Organization Fully understand the professional backgrounds of participants. Organize survey teams with different discipline backgrounds based on the situation of surveyed areas. Ensure to complete biodiversity survey works authentically and accurately in the project area.

C.1.2 Identification of survey areas According to survey objectives, tasks and targets, identify the area or scope involved in the survey, thus to collect relevant data.

C.1.3 Collection of materials Collect and consolidate materials related to the targets, scope and area of the survey, including historical survey materials, administrative division, geographical location, topography and landscape, soil, climate, vegetation, agriculture, local social and economic status and architectural facilities that affect the survival of species. Analyze the surveyed area on the basis of collected data, laying grounds for the development of survey programs and plans.

C.1.4 Development of Survey Plan Contents of survey plan include objective, tasks, technical program design, staff organization, time arrangement, guarantee measures, funds, and others.

C.2 Survey Methods C.2.1 Survey methods for animals (1) Total count approach For large diurnal mammals living in limited habitats, use direct counting to calculate their total numbers.

For gregarious animals, it is easier to count their numbers during breeding seasons when they usually live in groups. Total count approach within a small scope is also applicable to invertebrate animals.

(2) Quadrat counting If the survey area is too large to directly count the number of all animals, quadrat counting is necessary.

Divide the survey area into several quadrats, then select some of the quadrats to investigate the quantity of animals, get an average number of several quadrats, thus to infer the total quantity in the whole surveyed area. Quadrats are usually in the shape of square or rectangle, and sometimes in the shape of belt or circle.

The number of quadrats needs to be calculated beforehand. Quadrat must be representative and contains relatively large number of species to be surveyed. Generally, quadrat for insects is 1m×1m large, for small invertebrates is 5m×5m large, and that for birds is 100m×100m.

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(3) Quadrat driving out For those mammals used to hide in tussocks or shrubs, drive them out and count their numbers. This method is applicable to flat area, mountainous area with slight gradient and excessively dense shrubs and woods.

(4) Sampling line (belt) Surveyors move along the set lines, and record animals appear in a certain scope on both sides of the line.

This method is rarely restricted by habitat conditions, which can save manpower and materials, since one surveyor can investigate into a relatively large area within a short period.

C.2.2 Survey methods for plants (1) Quadrat approach This method is to set up a certain number of quadrats on a sampling site, thus to conduct comprehensive researches on and investigations into species in the quadrat. This method is applicable to areas with abundant species distributed densely and largely.

(2)Sampling line (belt) Surveyors move along the set lines, and record animals appear in a certain scope on both sides of the line.

Width of lines can be either definite or not. This method is applicable to areas with relatively less species distributed sparsely, but with large populations.

(3)Thorough investigation Thorough investigation can be used to survey total individuals of species, measure the distribution area, and authentically reflect the situation. This method is applicable to areas with few species restrictively distributed, and less populations.

(4) Interview Visit and interview residents within the project area, and fill information in the pre­formulated table or questionnaires.

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Appendix D (normative appendix) Biodiversity Impact Assessment Indicators D.1 Ecosystem Types The quantity of natural or semi­natural ecosystems based on vegetation types within the assessed area.

D.2 Habitat Fragmentation F= [（m­1）/ E] ×100% In the equation above, F stands for habitat fragmentation, m stands for the total number of patches in the assessed habitat, and E stands for the quantity of patches that may mostly appear in the assessed habitat.

Habitat fragmentation extent will be larger when the value of F is bigger.

D.3 Intensity of disturbance This is to express human disturbance. Smaller disturbance intensity is better for the survival of species, thus will have greater ecologic meaning for receptor.

Wi = Li / Si In the equation above, Wi stands for disturbance intensity, Li stands for the total length of corridors (roads, railways, embankments, ditches etc.) within the scope of i type habitat, and Si stands for the total size of i type habitat.

D.4 Indicator of Species Abundance The indicator is the measure the quantity of species within a certain space to describe the extent of species abundance. Parameters mainly used include Species quantity (s) in a certain sampling site, Margalef index and Gleason index.

Margalef index: D = ( S ­ 1)/ lnN In the equation, N is the total number of individuals; S is species quantity in the ecosystem.

Gleason index: D = S/ lnA In the equation, A is unit area; and S is species quantity in the ecosystem.

D.5 Species Endemism The relative quantity of wild higher animals and plants those are endemic to China within the assessed area.

D.6 Invasion Extent of Alien Species This refers to the ratio between alien invasive species and local wild higher animals and plants within the assessed area, describing the invasion extent of alien species suffered by the ecosystem.

D.7 Extent of Species Endangerment

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According the state of species populations and their status of endangerment, the extent can be described as critically endangered (CR) , endangered (EN), vulnerably endangered (VU), and near threatened (NT).

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Appendix E (documentary appendix) Methods of Biodiversity Impact Assessment and Prediction E.1 Checklist and Description The method of checklist is a kind of qualitative analysis method raised by Little and others in 1971. This method is simple and highly target­oriented. The basic practice of checklist method is to list all the impacting elements of development and construction activities and all the environmental elements might be impacted in the same matrix. Analyze point by point, and elaborate the nature and intensity of every impact, thus to analyze the ecological impacts of development and construction activities.

E.2 Graphs Overlaying This method is to overlay at least two pieces of ecological information on one graph, making a compound graph to indicate the directions and extent of ecological changes. Features of this method are direct, vivid, simple and clear, but it cannot be used for precise quantitative analysis. Graphs overlaying consist of two basic methods, i.e. indicator approach and 3S overlaying of graphs.

E.2.1 Indicator approach (1) Define the scope of assessment area; (2) Conduct ecological survey, collect natural and ecological information related to assessment scope and surrounding areas, and collection information about social economy, environmental pollution and environmental quality; (3) Identify impacts and select elements to be assessed, including identification and analysis of major ecological issues; (4) Study the geographical distribution rules of ecosystem or ecological elements that are to be assessed; establish indicator system for the to­be­assessed ecosystem, ecological elements or ecological issues to describe the features; assign values to indicators or classify indicators by ranks through qualitative analysis or quantitative methods, and make zoning division of assessment area according to the values of indicators.

(5) Mapping the above zoning division on ecological map.

E.2.2 3S overlaying of graphs (1) Select proper remote sensing images as the bottom graph, which should be slightly larger than the assessment scope; (2) Map major elements information on the bottom graph, e.g. vegetation coverage, animal distribution, waterways, land use status and specially protected target etc.; (3) Identify impacts and select elements to be assessed; (4) Analyze the properties, types and extents of different impacts by adopting 3S technology; (5) Overlay the impact elements graph on the bottom graph, thus to develop the ecological impact assessment graph.

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E.3 Ecological mechanism analysis Animals, plants and their living environment constitute an organic integrity, when the growing environment of plants is impacted by the development of projects, the individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants will surely be impacted as well. According to the rationale of ecology, steps for impact prediction are listed below: (1) Investigate the background status of environment and collect relevant materials; (2) Investigate the distribution of animals and plants, as well as animal habitats and migration paths; (3) Classify plants and animals according to populations, communities and ecosystems, and describe their distribution characteristics, structural features and evolution stages; (4) Identify rare and endangered species, and species with significant economic, historic, landscape and scientific values; (5) Monitor the change of animal and plant habitat the completion of the project; (6) Based on the changes of environment (water, air, soil and life components) after the project completion, and comparing with the evolution trend of animals and plants under the circumstance with no project development, predict the impacts on animal and plant individuals, populations and communities, and predict the evolution trend of ecosystem.

Biological simulation experiments are necessary in the process of assessment, e.g. simulation of environmental condition, simulation of biological habits, biological toxicology experiment, in­situ plantation or breeding experiment, or mathematic simulation such as the application of population grow model. This method needs co­assessment with disciplines of biology, geography, hydrology, mathematics and others, thus to achieve objective results.

E.4 Analogical Analysis Analogical analysis is an often used assessment method for qualitative and semi­quantitative analysis, and usually there are analogical analysis of ecological integrity, ecological elements and ecological problems etc.

Analogical analysis is to analyze or predict the ecological impacts potentially occur in the construction and development of planned project, by comparing the ecological impacts caused by completed or existing projects. The proper selection of analogical targets is the basis of this method, and is critical to the success of this method.

Selection conditions of analogical targets are as the following: the characteristics, process and scale of selected project must be similar to the planned project; the selected project must has similar ecological conditions (geographical, geological, climate, biological elements etc.) as the planned project, and the project selected should be completed for a certain time, thus all its impacts have appeared basically; once the analogical targets are identified, analogical elements and indicators should be identified as well, and investigation and assessment should be conducted on analogical targets, then analyze the differences between analogical targets and planned project, thus to get analysis conclusions based on the comparison.

E.5 Hierarchical Analysis Hierarchical analysis is a simple, flexible and useful method with multiple criteria to have quantitative analysis on qualitative issues. The feature of this method is to transfer different elements in a complicate issue into connected and ordered hierarchies, and directly and effectively combine experts comments with analyzer’s objective judgment according to the subjective judgment structure (essentially paired 96

comparison) on some objective reality, then give qualitative description on the significance concluded from paired comparison within a certain hierarchy. Then use mathematic methods to calculate and reflect the weight and value of the relative significance sequence of elements in a certain hierarchy, and calculated the relative weights of all elements and sort out according to the overall sequence of all hierarchies.

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Appendix F (documentary appendix) Analyzing Form for Biodiversity Impact Prediction and Assessment in Tourism Development Project Assessment indicator

Properties of impact

Scope of impact

Continuity

Certainty

Causality

Severity

Diversity of ecosystem types Habitat fragmentation Disturbance intensity Abundance of wild plants Abundance of wild higher animals Species endemism Species endangerment Invasion extent of alien species Note: properties of impact are described as negative or positive; scope of impact refers to the area, assessed area or part of the area; continuity means short term, long term or permanent; certainty is described as certain, possible or uncertain; causality is described as direct, indirect or accumulative; severity is described as very severe, severe, medium or slight.

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Appendix G (documentary appendix) Prediction and Assessment Form for Periodic Impacts of the Project

Project implementation

Construction phase

Impacts prediction on ecosystem

Tourism Development Construction activities Construction site Material transportation Mechanical operation Road foundation Earth borrow and spoil Construction workers (vegetation collection, disturbance on breeding site) Transportation Tourists’ treading

Operation phase

Tourists’ disturbance Other tourist activities (picking and collecting)

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Impacts prediction on species

Appendix H (documentary appendix)

General Principles for Landscape Structure Impact Assessment Based on the Theories of Island Biological Geography

A

Advantageous Disadvantageous Comparison of results Big is better than small

B

One is better than more when sizes of area are the same

C

Concentration is better than deconcentration

D

Polygon is better than line

E

Connected (corridor) is better than disconnected

F

Circle is better than any other forms, since circles have the largest ratio between area and perimeter

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Appendix I (documentary appendix) Approximate buffering distance of impacts on different animals and plants caused by buildings and human activities Animal and Plant Groups

Approximate buffering distance*

Plants

70m ­ 500m

Invertebrates

1m ­ 50m

Amphibians and reptiles

50m ­ 200m

Grassland birds

40m ­ 370m

Water fowls

100 ­ 200m

Forest birds

70m ­ 300m

Small mammals

50m ­ 160m

Large mammals

200m ­ 3.6km

Large carnivores

1km ­ 25 km

Note: Bentrup 2008, Fernandez­Juricic 2004 and Yugovic 2007. buffering distances listed in the table are relatively large, which will greatly restrict the impact prediction on targeted species in the process of assessment, therefore, it is necessary to consider achievements of biological mechanism studies and comments of experts when conducting assessment.

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Appendix J (documentary appendix) Classification Form of Habitat Sensitivities in Chongqing Classification Form of Ecosystem Sensitivities in Chongqing* Ecosystem types

Extent of sensitivity

Temperate coniferous forest

Moderately sensitive

Warm coniferous forest

Highly sensitive

Coniferous and broadleaf mixed forest

Highly sensitive

Deciduous broadleaf forest

Extremely sensitive

Evergreen deciduous broadleaf mixed forest

Extremely sensitive

Evergreen broadleaf forest

Critically sensitive

Bamboo forest

Slightly sensitive

Deciduous shrub, hassock

Moderately sensitive

Evergreen shrub, hassock

Highly sensitive

Typical meadow

Highly sensitive

Swampy meadow

Moderately sensitive

Emergent aquatic vegetation

Moderately sensitive

Field crop

Non­sensitive

Cash woods

Slightly sensitive

Orchard woods

Non­sensitive

others

Non­sensitive

Quoted from Studies on Habitat Sensitivity Assessment in Chongqing by LI Yuecheng etc., this classification form can be used as an analysis tool for ecosystem impact prediction in the biodiversity impact assessment for tourism development projects.

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103

Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of linear Projects

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Contents 1 General Principles..................................................................................................................................108 1.1 Editing Purpose.................................................................................................................................108 1.2 Scope of Application.........................................................................................................................108 1.3 Assessment Principles.......................................................................................................................108 1.4 Ranks of Assessment.........................................................................................................................108 1.5 Scope of Assessment.........................................................................................................................109 1.6 Contents of Assessment ....................................................................................................................109 2 Normative References............................................................................................................................110 3 Terms and Definitions............................................................................................................................ 111 4 Investigation and Analysis of Project Plan ..........................................................................................113 4.1 Focuses of investigation and analysis ...............................................................................................113 4.2 Working contents ..............................................................................................................................113 5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity ..........................................................114 5.1 Contents of Survey on the Current Status .........................................................................................114 5.2 Contents of assessment on current status ..........................................................................................114 5.3 Requirements for assessment on current status.................................................................................115 5.4 Survey and assessment methods .......................................................................................................115 6 Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts ..................................................................................116 6.1 Contents of prediction and assessment .............................................................................................116 6.2 Requirements on prediction and assessment.....................................................................................116 6.3 Methods of prediction and assessment..............................................................................................116 7 Biodiversity Conservation Measures....................................................................................................117 7.1 Principles and Requirements.............................................................................................................117 7.2 Protection and restoration measures .................................................................................................117 8 Biodiversity Monitoring and Management..........................................................................................118 8.1 Biodiversity Monitoring....................................................................................................................118 8.2 Management of Biodiversity Conservation ......................................................................................118 9 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation and cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts .......................................................................................................................................................120 9.1 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation ....................................................................120 9.2 Cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts...................................................................................120 10 Public involvement...............................................................................................................................121 11 Conclusions of biodiversity assessment ..............................................................................................122

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Appendix A (documentary appendix) Assessment Indicators for the Current Status of Biodiversity ....................................................................................................................................................................123 Appendix B (normative appendix) Requirements for Development of Maps and Graphs ................125 Appendix C (documentary appendix) Assessment Methods for Survey on Current Status...............126 Appendix D (documentary appendix) Methods for Biodiversity Impacts Assessment and Prediction ....................................................................................................................................................................129 Appendix E (documentary appendix) Monitoring methods for major biological groups ..................133 Appendix F Instruction on diction in this Guideline .............................................................................135

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1 General Principles 1.1 Editing Purpose By defining standards, principles, contents and methods of assessment, and unifying technological requirements, this Guideline is compiled to regulate biodiversity assessments for the development and construction of linear projects.

1.2 Scope of Application This Guideline is mainly applied in biodiversity assessment for the development and construction of linear projects in Chongqing. “Linear projects” herein refer to highway, railway and pipeline projects, excluding airlines and power feed or transformation lines.

1.3 Assessment Principles Stick to the principle of attaching balanced importance to both key points and overall aspects. Focuses should be given to important areas and road sections where important species are distributed, while the structural and functional integrity of biodiversity involved in assessed projects in different time and space range should be maintained.

Adhere to the principle of applying both quantitative analyzing methodology and qualitative analysis methodology. Quantitative methods should be adopted for description and analysis. When the current scientific methods cannot meet the needs of quantitative analysis, or quantitative analysis is not applicable due to other reasons, then qualitative and analogy methodologies can be applied in description and analysis.

Adhere to the principle of adopting both preventative and recovery measures. Take preventative measures as the major methodology, and recovery compensation measures as assisting methodology.

1.4 Ranks of Assessment Based on the ranking of ecological impacts assessment worked stipulated the Assessment Guidelines for Biodiversity Impacts issued by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, current assessment work is classified into 3 ranks: I, II, and III, see Table 1­1 for ranking methods.

Table 1­1 Ranks of Assessment Work (I, II and III)

Major ecological impacts and their changing degrees Bio­communities biomass reduces（＜50%） biomass reduces sharply（≥50%） heterogeneity declines comparative homogeneity diversity of species reduces（＜50%） diversity of species reduces sharply（≥50%） extinction of rare and endangered species Regional environment green land reduces, distributes unbalanced, and is poorly connected. green land reduces by ½, distributes unbalanced, and has extremely poor connection.

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Project affected area / km 2 ＞50 20～50 ＜20 2 1 2 1 2 1 1

3 2 3 2 3 2 1

— 3 — 3 — 3 1

2

3

—

1

2

3

Water and land desertification physicochemical property changes physicochemical property worsens Sensitive areas

1 2 1 1

2 3 2 1

3 — 3 1

1.5 Scope of Assessment Biodiversity impacts assessment should reflect the integrity of ecosystem, including areas affected directly or indirectly by all the activities involved in assessed projects. The scope of assessment is decided by the way and degree that biodiversity elements are affected by the projects, and by mutual influences and dependence between those biodiversity elements.

Generally, assessment III includes 100m area extending from the central line of highway, outer track of railway, and pipeline. Assessment II includes 200m area extending from the central line of highway, outer track of railway, and pipeline. Assessment I includes 300m area extending from the central line of highway, outer track of railway, and pipeline. Apart from that, construction sites and temporary land belong to the assessment scope as well.

1.6 Contents of Assessment Biodiversity assessment should encompass the following major contents: Investigation and analysis of project plans, Survey and assessment on current status of biodiversity, Prediction assessment on biodiversity environmental impacts, Biodiversity conservation measures, Biodiversity monitoring and management, Economic cost­benefit analysis of biodiversity impacts, Public involvement in biodiversity conservation, and assessment conclusions For reconstruction or expansion of linear projects, retrospective investigations into biodiversity impacts prior to the reconstruction or expansion, as well as analyzing contents should be provided.

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2 Normative References Articles in the following documents are cited in this Guideline. For those documents without dates being noted, their presently effective versions are applicable to this Guideline.

HJ/T2.1­93 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – General Outline HJ/T19­1999 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – Non­pollution Ecological Impacts JTG B03—2006 Specifications on Environmental Impact Assessment for Highway Construction Projects TB 10502­93 Technical Standards for Environmental Impact Assessment for Railway Construction Projects HJ/T192 Technical Specifications for Ecological Environment Assessment (On Trial) HJ89­2003 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – Petroleum and Chemical Engineering Projects Order of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of People’s Republic of China (No.2) – Classified Management List of Environmental Impact Assessment for Construction Projects

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3 Terms and Definitions The following terms and definitions are applicable to this Guideline: (1) Biodiversity Biodiversity consists of diversities on four levels, namely gene diversity, species diversity, ecosystem diversity and landscape diversity, and the latter three are included in the assessment defined in this Guideline.

(2) Biodiversity impact It refers to any positive or negative effects on biodiversity at different levels caused by human economic and social activities. According to the difference of objects being impacted, it can be classified into species impact, ecosystem impact and landscape impact; according to the natures of impact, it can be divided into positive impact and negative impact; by sources of impacts, there are direct impacts, indirect impacts and accumulative impacts; and by the results of impacts, there are reversible impacts and irreversible impacts.

(3) Sensitive biodiversity area On the basis of sensitive environments listed in the Classified Management List of Environmental Impact Assessment for Construction Projects issued by MEP, the following sensitive biodiversity areas are selected: Nature reserves, forest parks, scenery and historical spots, important wetlands, natural forests, condensed natural distribution areas of rare and endangered wildlife, natural spawning grounds, bait areas, wintering areas and recurrent paths of important aquatic life, and natural fisheries.

(4) Fragile eco­areas It is also known as “ecotone”, most of which are located in transitional eco­areas and ecotone of vegetations, such as compound ecotones of agricultural and pastoral, forestry and pastoral, agricultural and forestry etc. Typical ecosystems of ecotone include typical karst landscape of caves and rocks, karst forests, karst rivers, lake waters, karst caving habitats of rare, endangered and endemic species.

(5) Rare and endangered species Protected animals, plants and aquatic species: species identified in National List of Wild Plants under Key Protection, and National List of Wild Animals under Key Protection issued by National Forestry Bureau and the Ministry of Agriculture, as well as those defined by municipal list of protected species; Endemic species: local endemic species, and narrow endemic species; Ancient and precious trees: according to Technical Specifications on National General Survey of Ancient and Precious Trees developed by National Greening Commission in 2001, ancient trees refer to trees that are over 100 years old; and precious trees refer to trees planted by influential famous people at home and abroad historically or socially, or trees that historical values, cultural values and commemorative meanings.

Others: international or national migrant species under the protection of CITES, such as birds and fishes; and all the threatened species in the IUCN Red List.

(6) Invasive Plants Invasive plants are identified according to List of Alien Invasive Species in China issued by MEP. 111

(7) Stability of ecosystem It is also known as ecosystem balance, which mainly assessed by resistant capacity and recovering capacity.

Resistant capacity: the capacity of ecosystem to resist external disturbance. Resistant capacity is closely related to characteristics of species and the development stages of ecosystems. If bio­individual’s adaptability to environmental elements is stronger and the ecosystem is more mature, the resistant capacity against external disturbance of such ecosystem will be stronger, which can be measured by productivity.

Recovering capacity: the capability of ecosystem to recover to its original state after suffering from external disturbances. Recovering capacity is mainly decided by the essential property of life components (the basic characteristics of life force and continuation of biological groups) and the characteristics of biological communities. Generally, if the life cycle of species is shorter and structure of ecosystem is simpler, the recovering capacity of such ecosystem will be stronger.

(8) Others Vascular plants: ferns, gymnosperm and angiosperm.

Terrestrial wild vertebrates: amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, excluding fishes.

Aquatic life: plankton plants, plankton animals, benthonic animals and fishes.

Types of vegetation: according to the classification system of Sichuan Vegetation, vegetations should be classified into formation or association. The scaling unit of vegetation type graph is decided by the precision degree of data, the lowest precision should reach the level of vegetation type.

Eco­functional zoning: according to Eco­functional Zoning Plan of Chongqing Municipality (revised), classified into the third level of zoning.

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4 Investigation and Analysis of Project Plan 4.1 Focuses of investigation and analysis Define the focuses of investigation and analysis according to the characteristics of projects, regional biodiversity characteristics and interactive relationship between the assessed projects and biodiversity in the affected areas.

1) Engineering activities that might have great impacts on biodiversity; 2) Engineering activities that have relations with biodiversity sensitive areas and fragile areas; 3) Engineering activities that may have indirect impacts on biodiversity; 4) Engineering activities that may cause significant occupation and allocation of resources.

4.2 Working contents Contents of investigation and analysis should include geological location of projects, project components, project type, size of land use, spatial arrangement of projects, main production process and procedures, operational model, construction plan (including construction methods and construction sequence), alternative plan, project total investment and environmental investment, and biodiversity conservation measures; identify and analyze characteristics of impacts, effective ways and results of impacts in different phases of project implementation (field survey phase, construction phase and operational phase), taking construction phase and operational phase as the focuses of investigation and analysis.

1) According to different biodiversity background characteristics of affected areas in the construction phase, the analysis should focus on the process of how the construction processes, construction time, size and layout of construction site, construction activities of workers, utilization of mechanical equipments and other development and construction activities are impacting on biodiversity in affected areas, and the biodiversity impacts on sensitive and fragile biodiversity areas caused by project construction should also be analyzed.

2) In operational phase of such projects, the nature, intensity, scope, manner and results of potential ecological impacts caused by the operation of projects should be analyzed, on the basis of operational mode of projects, interactive process between the assessed projects and biodiversity in affected areas, thus to identify direct and indirect biodiversity impacts due to the long­term operation of projects.

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5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity 5.1 Contents of Survey on the Current Status It is decided by geological features of biology that biodiversity survey is a must in the working process, and the contents and indicators surveyed should reflect biodiversity background features and major existing problems in the affected areas. When sensitive biodiversity area or protecting targets under special requirements are involved, special surveys are required. Biodiversity survey of linear projects should adhere to the principle of attaching balanced importance to both key points and overall aspects of ecosystems.

1)Background survey of regional biodiversity Survey the ecosystem and species involved in project affected areas, according to the characteristics of spatial and time range of biodiversity impacts. Surveys on ecosystems should indicate the types, structures and distributed zones and sections of ecosystems; while surveys on species should focus on the varieties, amount, distribution, living habits, living, reproduction and migration behaviors of rare and endangered species, advantageous species and invasive species. For sensitive and fragile biodiversity areas within the 5km scope radiated from the project to be constructed, their protecting targets, protecting scope and levels should be surveyed.

2) Survey on main regional biodiversity issues Survey the existing biodiversity issues and natural disasters that restrict the development and construction of projects or restrict the sustainable development in project affected areas, such as water and soil erosion, desertification, salinization, natural disasters and pollutions, and the types, causes, spatial distributions, characteristics, developing processes and trends of such issues.

5.2 Contents of assessment on current status 1) On the basis of elaborated ecosystem status, analyze the major causes impacting ecological quality in the area. Assess the structural and functional status of ecosystem, pressure and existing issues encountered by ecosystems, and the overall changing trend of ecosystem, from the perspective of ecosystem integrity.

2) Analyze and assess the current components, distribution, development trend and disturbance tolerance capacity of animals and plants in project affected areas; when sensitive species under protection are involved in assessed areas, importance should be attached on the habitats, and ecological habits of such sensitive species in analysis, and the ecological quality should also be assessed in terms of species and populations.

3) With the precondition that the relation between project and sensitive and fragile biodiversity areas are elaborated, assess the types, protection scope, protection levels, functional zoning, protecting targets and service functions of sensitive and fragile biodiversity areas, and analyze their structural and functional status, pressures encountered, existing problems and general changing trend.

4) Describe the biodiversity level of assessed areas generally, and explain the major existing issues. It should be measured and assessed in the following aspects: amount and varieties of rare and endangered species, community structure and succession state of vegetations, and structure and stability of ecosystems.

Analysis can be conducted in line with different sections of the route.

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5.3 Requirements for assessment on current status 1）Literal text For assessment I, overall, detailed and profound assessment is required for biodiversity in assessed areas, including all the indicators listed, and quantify those can be quantified; for assessment II, overall and detailed assessment is required, and both qualitative and quantitative descriptions can be applied; for assessment III, assessment is required only on rare and endangered species, major vegetation types and ecological functional zoning in assessed areas, and qualitative description is the major method used.

See Appendix A for compulsory indicators and recommended indicators for different ranks of assessments on current biodiversity status.

2）Attached graphics Assessments above Rank II should be carried out on the basis of maps and graphics. For assessment Rank III, current land­use map and result graph of assessment on critical elements should be provided; for assessment Rank II, distribution map of vegetation types and result graph of assessment on major elements are required, and these graphs need to be completed by computer and are able to be displayed in GIS; for assessment Rank I, apart from above mentioned graphs, hi­tech information technologies such as 3S, Integration and multimedia should be fully utilized in assessment.

Distribution map of vegetation types herein refers to “current vegetation map”. Referring to vegetation classification system in Sichuan Vegetation, it is classified into natural vegetation and planted vegetation, requiring the map scaling unit should not be lower than the class of formation (sub­formation class). Since the covering sizes, structural complexities, and precision of graphic negatives of different vegetations are various, thus more detailed formation and association units can be applied; within a vegetation map, units indicating different vegetation classification ranks and hybrid units indicating combination of vegetation types can both be applied.

See Appendix B for other specifications on graph editing.

3）Attachments Attachments for assessment Rank I and Rank II include: survey graph of sampling vegetation quadrats, lists of main species resources (plants, animals and aquatic life). Typicality and representativeness of vegetation sampling quadrats should be clarified prior to the survey graph; main species resources should be listed in line with different habitats/sections the linear projects have passed by.

5.4 Survey and assessment methods Major methods include data searching and selection, public consultancy, quadrat sampling, sample line survey, calculation of species diversity, analysis of ecological mechanics, landscape ecology, remote sensing etc. See Appendix A for the list of methods in line with current survey indicators, and see Appendix C for specific introductions to listed methods.

For the reconstruction and expansion of existing linear projects, the methods of setting horizontal sample belts (select different cross­sections at various distances to the main works of project) and interviewing with general public can be applied, when conducting retrospective survey and analysis on biodiversity impacts.

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6 Prediction Assessment on Biodiversity Impacts 6.1 Contents of prediction and assessment Contents of biodiversity impact prediction and assessment should be corresponding to that of assessment on current status.

1) Impact assessment on landscape, ecosystem and species involved in the assessed scope. By analyzing how impact works in terms of the way, scope, intensity and duration, thus to identify the scope, degree and duration of impacts suffered by such assessed items, and predict the changing trend of ecosystem components and service functions, with focuses on negative and irreversible impacts.

2) Impact assessments on sensitive areas, rare and endangered species and other protecting targets should be carried out in the circumstance that the characteristics, features, legal status and protection requirements of protecting targets are clearly understood, thus to analyze the effecting approach, manner and degree of assessed project impacts, and predict the potential results.

3) Predict the trend of impacts on existing biodiversity issues within the assessed project affected areas.

6.2 Requirements on prediction and assessment 1) Assessment Rank III is mainly focused on macro­analysis of biodiversity impacts at important construction spots and on sensitive environmental elements; through such analysis, elaborate major biodiversity impacts (vegetation damaged by land occupation, animal habitats reduction, blockage of natural animal corridors), critical biodiversity impact elements (rare and endangered species) and corresponding zones and sections to each impact caused by the implementation of projects.

2) Assessment Rank II should evaluate all potential biodiversity disturbances in project affected areas, and clarify potential fragmentation of overall ecological structure and landscape, focusing on the analysis of potential impacts on nature reserves, scenery and historical spots, as well as forest parks within assessed scope.

3) Based on assessment Rank II, assessment Rank I emphasizes more on the changing trend of landscape structures, functions, stabilities and species diversity, as well as on the impact analysis of disturbance resistant capacity. Rank I also have higher requirements on quantification of assessment depth and assessment results.

6.3 Methods of prediction and assessment Methods for biodiversity impact prediction and assessment include checklist or description, overlaying of graphs, analysis of ecological mechanics, landscape ecology, index and comprehensive index, analogical analysis, ecological quality assessment etc. See Appendix D for detailed methods of prediction and assessment.

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7 Biodiversity Conservation Measures 7.1 Principles and Requirements Protection plan for biodiversity impacts shall be developed in the sequence of avoidance, mitigation, restoration and compensation, with the principle of “giving priority to protection, taking prevention as major means, combining prevention and control, attaching importance on pragmatism”, complying with related environmental protection laws and regulations, reflecting the sustainable development strategy, and covering the designing phase, construction phase and the whole operational process of project.

Measures should be target­oriented, according to different geo­locations of projects, different ecosystems at different sections of project, and different community succession stages of ecosystems.

Contents of protection should be corresponding to the contents of impact prediction and assessment.

7.2 Protection and restoration measures Avoidance measures: whenever important biodiversity targets are involved, particularly biodiversity targets that are irreplaceable, extremely valuable, extremely sensitive and impossible to be restored once destroyed, reliable avoidance measures must be proposed, that is to change project routing, optimize engineering design and properly arrange construction time to avoid such those targets. Avoidance measures mainly include: change of routing, shrinkage of slope, reducing the height of road foundation, replacement of high fill with bridges, replacement of deep excavation with tunnels, construction during non­reproduction period of animals, and construction during non­migration period of birds.

Mitigation measures: should be adopted for all impacted targets. Mitigation measures mainly include: restricting construction within the footprint of acquired land, adopting silencing devices on mechanical equipments with large noises, discharge waste water after treatment, using cofferdam for the construction of bridges over waters, planting local plants at road sides, tunnel portals and under bridges during the operational period of highways and railways for separation of lighting and noises, setting animal paths for impacted species on roads and railways, excavating , piling and backfilling by layers for surface soil.

Restoration measures: when the loss of natural resources that have long reproduction cycle, low recovery speed is involved in projects, restoration measures must be formulated, mainly including the restoration of vegetations at construction sites, earth cutting sites and spoil grounds, reclamation and greening plans, which usually require a relatively long period of management. Vegetation restoration and greening plan must select different plant species in line with different ecosystems, local species in particular, and must comply with the engineering requirements of projects.

Compensation measures: whenever irreversible impacts occur on important biodiversity targets that are irreplaceable, extremely valuable, extremely sensitive, and impossible to be recovered once destroyed, compensation measures must be developed. Effects of compensation measures shall be assessed and proved, funding and timing shall be estimated as well.

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8 Biodiversity Monitoring and Management 8.1 Biodiversity Monitoring Propose long term ecological monitoring plans for the construction of linear projects and linear project related plans that might have significant biodiversity impacts or large biodiversity risks, identify monitoring elements, methods, frequency, funding, working organizations, and carry out reviews and evaluations phase by phase.

Monitor the dynamic changes of related environmental elements and factors in the construction period and operational period of projects, and formulate environmental monitoring plan. Track, monitor and investigate environmental emergencies in relation to the construction of projects.

The deployment of monitoring stations and spots should target at major environmental elements and factors impacted during project construction and operational periods. Monitoring stations and spots should be representative, and existing stations and spots should be effectively used.

Infrastructure scale of monitoring stations, instruments and equipments should meet the needs of monitoring and management tasks.

Monitoring scope should be appropriate for projects affected areas. Monitoring locations and frequencies are determined by the representativeness of investigated data, quality of ecological environment, the habits and features of monitored targets.

Requirements for monitoring methods and techniques must comply with the current national technological specifications on environmental monitoring and the national standard analyzing methods for environmental monitoring.

8.2 Management of Biodiversity Conservation The management of biodiversity conservation contains the compilation of management plan, development of management measures for implementing biodiversity conservation measures, conducting qualitative analysis and assessment on biodiversity, and carrying out scientific researches and technological management concerning ecological protection; it is suggested that the management staffing plan be integrated into biodiversity management departments of projects, and management staff’s roles and responsibilities concerning biodiversity be defined.

Tasks of biodiversity conservation and management should include: the execution of biodiversity conservation policies and regulations; development of biodiversity conservation and management plans; the implementation and management of biodiversity conservation measures; recommendation of contents and requirements in regard to environmental protection in the engineering design of projects, environmental supervision of projects, the biding and awarding processes of projects; qualitative analysis and assessment on ecological environment, and the scientific researches and technological management in relation to biodiversity etc.

Biodiversity conservation and management should be integrated into project management, being carried through the constructional period and operational period of projects.

Tasks of biodiversity conservation and management should include: the execution of environmental protection policies and regulations; development of environmental management plans; the implementation and management of environmental protection measures; recommendation of contents and requirements in regard to environmental protection in the engineering design of projects, environmental supervision of projects, the biding and awarding processes of projects; qualitative analysis and assessment on environment, and scientific researches and technological management in relation to environmental protection etc.

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Environmental management system, management organizations and staffing should be in accordance with project management system and environmental management tasks.

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9 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation and cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts 9.1 Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation All the relevant investments should be listed, including investment on biodiversity conservation measures to mitigate negative environmental impacts of projects and satisfy projects functions, investment on biodiversity management measures, biodiversity monitoring and researches, as well as proper compensations to environmental impacts that are hard to be restored and protected.

Estimation of investments on biodiversity conservation should be classified into biodiversity conservation investment, biodiversity monitoring investment, investment on instruments, equipments and installation, investment on temporary environmental protection facilities, and other independent costs.

Estimation of investment on biodiversity conservation should clarify the basis for cost standards and quotation. Estimate the total investment on environmental protection and develop annual investment allocation.

9.2 Cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts Cost­benefit analysis on biodiversity impacts should include cost analysis, economic benefit analysis and major conclusions.

Economic cost analysis on biodiversity impacts should include investment on environmental protection to avoid and mitigate negative environmental impacts, and biodiversity loss caused by the construction of projects.

Economic benefits of biodiversity refer to social, economic and environmental benefits resulted from positive biodiversity impacts as a result of projects construction, and benefits gained after adoption of environmental protection measures.

Economic cost­benefit analysis on environmental impacts is better to be measured and quantified in currency; for items that are hard to be quantified, qualitative measures can be applied in analysis.

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10 Public Involvement Public involvement in biodiversity assessment for linear projects can be carried out with the public involvement in overall project, while maintain its universality and representativeness. Ways of public involvement involve public interviews during surveys, talking and discussions with forestry bureau, water conservancy bureau and environmental bureau when collecting data, and expert consultancy with related colleges and scientific research institutes. Public involvement should collect and summarize public opinions, thus to find out ecological issues missed in field survey, and obtain certain baseline data about biodiversity; besides, public involvement should reflect whether the general public is willing to construct such projects; environmental concerns raised by the general public shall be addressed or solutions shall be proposed.

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11 Conclusions of biodiversity assessment 1) The final conclusions of biodiversity impact assessment refer to the feasibility analysis and conclusions on biodiversity impact of project implementation following up to the adoption of protection and restoration measures.

2) Contents of the conclusions include overview of current ecological status, assessment of current status, results of biodiversity impact prediction and assessment, and comments and recommendations for biodiversity restoration.

3) Biodiversity impact prevention and restoration measures, as well as the investment estimation should be clear in the conclusion.

4) When comparing and selecting project plans during the assessment process, recommended plans shall be proposed from the perspective of biodiversity conservation. Recommendations should be proposed as well in the conclusion targeting at biodiversity impact monitoring system and biodiversity management.

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Appendix A (documentary appendix) Assessment Indicators for the Current Status of Biodiversity Indicators are classified into 6 major types and 18 sub­types. For different linear projects, indicators of different major types should be selected based on impacted targets and the intensity of impacts; for different assessment ranks, there 8 indicators applicable for Rank III, 17 indicators applicable for Rank II, and 18 indicators applicable for Rank I. Assessment Indicators for the Current Status of Biodiversity Indicators Major types

Sub­types 1) Main plant species in different habitats (types, distributions and characteristics) 2) Protected, endemic plants, ancient trees and precious trees (types, protecting level or endemic level, amount, relation with assessed projects)

1. Vascular plants and vegetations (terrestrial and aquatic)

3) Invasive plants (types, amount, characteristics, distribution) 4) Vegetation coverage rate 5) Vegetation (types, structures, size, successive stage, distribution) 6) Biomass and productivity of vegetation 7) Main animal species in different habitats (types, distribution and habits)

2.

3.

Terrestrial wild vertebrates

Aquatic life

8) Protected and endemic animals (types, protecting level or endemic level, amount, relation with assessed projects) 9) Main aquatic species in different habitats (types, distribution and habits)

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Assessment Ranks applied

Main applicable methods

I, II

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, survey of sample lines

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, survey of sample lines

I, II

I, II, III

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, survey of sample lines Overlaying of graphs, remote sensing Quadrat sampling, analysis of ecological mechanism, calculation of species diversity

I, II

Quadrat sampling, data searching and selecting

I, II

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, survey of sample lines

I, II, III

I, II

Data searching and selecting, survey of sample lines Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, survey of sample lines

10) Protected and endemic aquatic species (types, protecting level or endemic level, amount, relation with assessed projects) 11) Ecological functional zoning 4.

Sensitive biodiversity areas 12) Sensitive biodiversity area

13) Fragile ecological area 14) Types of ecosystems 5.

Landscape

15) Stability of ecosystems 16) Landscape advantages/fragmentation

6.

17) Current quality of biodiversity and trend of Comprehension/Conclusion evolution 18) Major biodiversity issues

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I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, survey of sample lines

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting

I, II

I, II I, II I, II I

Data searching and selecting, survey of sample lines Data searching and selecting, survey of sample lines Survey of sample lines and remote sensing Ecological mechanism Remote sensing, landscape ecology

I, II, III

/

I, II, III

/

Appendix B (normative appendix) Requirements for Development of Maps and Graphs Maps and graphs are required to comply with specifications of cartography. The following items should be clearly indicated on the maps or graphs: title, scale, direction mark (for maps with scale lower than 1: 500,000, graticule should be adopted), legends, notes, data sources (survey data, experimental data, remote sensing data, or others), producing date etc; if graticule is adopted to show directions, coordinates parameters shall be noted as well.

Requirements and specifications of mapping scales Project length (km) >500 100~500 length 50~100 10~50 <10

Mapping scale Assessment Rank I >=1：500,000 >=1：250,000 >=1：100,000 >=1：50,000 >=1：10,000

Assessment Rank II >=1：100,000 >=1：500,000 >=1：250,000 >=1：100,000 >=1：10,000

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Assessment Rank III >=1：1,000,000 >=1：1,000,000 >=1：500,000 >=1：250,000 >=1：50,000

Appendix C (documentary appendix) Assessment Methods for Survey on Current Status C.1 Data searching and selection Collect existing data that can reflect the current status of biodiversity environment and biodiversity baseline in a certain region, and make use of the effective partial of collected data. Guarantee the present value of data used, and quoted data must be validated through field check.

Data can be classified into electronic documents, hardcopy data, maps and pictures by forms; historical data and current data according to time period; from the perspective of contents, there are environmental impact assessment reports, survey reports on pollutant sources, ecological conservation plans, regulations, ecological functional zoning plans, scientific investigation reports on nature reserves, basic situation of ecological sensitive targets, and other survey and investigation materials on ecology; classified by collecting sources, there are electronic magazine literatures, books, materials from agricultural, forestry, husbandry, fishery, land resources, environmental protection department, and even county annals.

C.2 Public consultancy Public consultancy is the effective supplement to field surveys. Opinions of general public, social groups and relevant management departments in the project affected areas should be collected. In a way, public consultancy is to discover ecological issues missed in field survey, and collect opinions of general public social groups and management departments concerning these ecological issues. Public consultancy includes visits and interviews with the public, talks with management authorities such as forestry bureau, water conservancy bureau, environmental protection bureau etc, as well as expert consultancy with colleges and scientific research institutes.

C.3 Survey methods of quadrat sampling and line sampling 1. Vascular plants and vegetation (1) Survey on vegetation type (list quadrat) ① Principles for site settlement: refer to 1:50,000 and 1:10,000 topographic maps, satellite map or forest distribution map, and set quadrat sites on or close to the route of planned projects, taking into consideration the balance and environmental differences; avoid repetition of same type vegetation when setting sample quadrats, additional sample quadrat can be set for specially important vegetations in line with the changing situation of plants; representative sample quadrat should be selected for different vegetation types.

Sensitive and fragile biodiversity areas should not be missed when setting sample quadrat. ② Quadrat area: quadrat area of ever­green broadleaf forest community is 400 m 2 （20 m×20 m）, quadrat area of deciduous broadleaf forest, coniferous forest, and coniferous­broadleaf forest is 100 m 2 （10 m×10 m）. Sample quadrats are usually in the shape of square, or rectangle in special cases, but the shortest line 2 of such rectangle should not less than 5m. Area of shrub communities is 25 m （5 m×5 m） ; area of plateau 2 2 communities is 4m （2 m×2 m）, and that for others is 1m （1 m×1 m）. ③ Quantity of sample quadrats: quantity is decided according to the size and structure of bio­communities within the assessed scope. Set up more sample quadrats when the bio­communities have large size and diversified structures, and less sample quadrats for small and single­structured bio­communities. Usually, there should be 1~3 sample quadrats for each bio­community.

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④ Quadrat method: 1. Photograph the outlook and hierarchy structures of plants communities, and photograph/collect dominant species, protected and endemic species, ancient and precious trees, alien invasive species, and individuals of questionable species including flowers, fruits and twigs.

2. Fill the sample quadrat form, which is composed of the overview form and sub­forms. External features are documented on the overview form, including latitude and longitude, elevation, slope gradient, slope orientation, substrate type, location, relation to the project, outlook features of the bio­community, and surrounding environment. The sub­forms are simplified based on the quadrat method of Anglo­American school, which is mainly used to document the height of vegetations at arbor, shrub and grass levels, crown density, dominant species of each vegetation structure level, species name, quantity, height, breast­height diameter, crown density, phonological phase and viability of plants in arbor vegetations; and species name, abundance, height, crown density, crown diameter, phonological phase and viability of plants in shrub and grass vegetations. ⑤ Field survey equipments: Hand­hold GPS, geological compass, topographical map (1:50,000 and 1: 10,000), camera, steel tape measure, rope measure, plant specimen holder, scissor, and sample quadrat form.

(2) Measurement of vegetation biomass (weight quadrat) This is also known as weight quadrat. For forest communities, it is usually to measure the volume. For herbal plants communities, it is often to weigh the ground or sub­ground acquisition from the quadrat, and study the ground or sub­ground biomass of different plants.

(3) Survey on plant species components (the combination of line sampling and list quadrat) ① The selection of sampling line and quadrat: refer to 1:50,000 and 1:10,000 topographical maps, satellite maps and forest distribution map, and set sampling lines in different geo­locations, habitats and elevation zones. Sample quadrats are the survey sites for vegetation types. ② Methods: walk along the selected sampling lines, register types and species of plants along the lines, observe the habitats, and visually estimate the abundance; photograph/collect dominant species, protected and endemic species, ancient and precious trees, alien invasive species, and individuals of questionable species including flowers, fruits and twigs.

The survey results of vegetation sample quadrat can be directly applied here.

2. Terrestrial wild vertebrates (sampling belt, line and spot) The distribution of animals is closely related to the differentiations of habitats. Of all the habitat conditions, vegetation is the most important one, thus the survey on animals can be conducted on the basis of vegetation survey. ① The selection of survey lines and spots: set up sampling lines according to the distribution of different habitats, and sampling spots are set up on the sampling lines. Since amphibian, reptile animals and waterfowls are closely related to waters, 3~4 sampling lines can be set up in each river within the assessed scope, with the length of 150m for each sampling line; mammals and forest fowls are usually distributed in forests, shrubs and grasslands, thus sampling belts with the length of 3km and width of 50m can be set up in different vegetation type area. If restricted by geological conditions, quadrat method could be applied, setting up 3~5 quadrats in each sampling belt, with the area of 500 m×500 m

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② Method: for sampling lines or belts, walk along the selected sampling lines, register types and species of plants along the lines, observe the habitats, and visually estimate the abundance; photograph the common species, questionable species, protected and endemic species, and alien invasive species.

Photograph living bodies observed in sample quadrats, and carefully check signs of animals such as droppings, footprints, nests, and bitten plants.

3. Aquatic life ① The selection of survey cross­sections and spots: for major rivers or sensitive wetlands that will be crossed by planed linear projects, select cross sections around construction area, in upper and lower stream to investigate. ② Method: methods herein covers the collection, treatment, identification and calculation of plankton algae, plankton animals, benthos animals and fishes, referring to survey methods of hydroelectric projects for more details.

C.4 Calculation method for species diversity Species diversity refers to the quantity of species and the distribution of individual populations of a certain community. Species diversity reflect the degree of abundance of species, the relation between bio­communities and different natural geological conditions, and the stability and dynamics of bio­communities, thus is the important characteristic bio­community organizational structure.

Shannon­Wiener index is often selected to show species diversity, and the formula is as follow: s

å P ln P

H′= －

i

i

i=1

In the formula, P i = n i /N stands for the relative abundance of the i species, n i is the number of individuals of i species, and N is the total of individuals of all species.

C.5 Analysis of biological mechanism In the assessment of current status, this method is mainly used to assess the ecosystem stability and the succession trend of vegetations. See Appendix D for more details.

C.6 Landscape ecology In the assessment of current status, this method is applied to calculate the landscape dominance and fragments. See Appendix D for more details.

C.7 Remote sensing Remote sensing is utilized to survey large areas involved or wide spatial range of major biodiversity elements. Relevant data can be obtained from remote sensing images, such as vegetation coverage, and related index can be calculated plus the utilization of certain models. Remote sensing must be supported by necessary field surveys.

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Appendix D (documentary appendix) Methods for Biodiversity Impacts Assessment and Prediction D.1 Checklist or description method The method of checklist is a kind of qualitative analysis method raised by Little and others in 1971. This method is simple and highly target­oriented.

The basic practice of checklist method is to list all the impacting elements of development and construction activities and all the environmental elements might be impacted in the same matrix. Analyze point by point, and elaborate the nature and intensity of every impact, thus to analyze the biodiversity impacts of development and construction activities.

D.2 Method of overlaying graphs The method of overlaying graphs is to overlay at least two pieces of ecological information on one graph, making a compound graph to indicate the directions and extent of ecological changes. Features of this method are direct, vivid, simple and clear, but it cannot be used for precise quantitative analysis.

D.3 Method of ecological mechanism analysis Animals, plants and their living environment constitute an organic integrity, when the growing environment of plants is impacted by the development of projects, the individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants will surely be impacted as well. This method classify fauna and flora by populations, communities and ecosystems, based on investigations into the current status of environment, animals and plants, thus to identify whether there are rare and endangered species, or species with important economical, historical, scenery and scientific values. At the same time, the method will analyze the evolution trend of animals, plants and ecosystems in the circumstances without any project construction, in order to predict the impacts on individuals, populations and communities of animals and plants, as well as the evolution trend of ecosystems.

D.4 Method of landscape ecology Landscape ecology evaluates the ecological quality status through two aspects, one is the analysis on spatial structure, and the other is the analysis on functions and stability. Since landscape ecology deems that the structure and function of landscape matches each other, and it is the basic principle of ecology and sociological holism to increase the heterogeneity and symbiosis of landscape.

Spatial structure analysis is based on landscape (a larger natural system above ecosystem), and spatial structure is clear and measurable. Landscape consists of substrates, patches and corridors, of which substrate is the background strata of landscape – the landscape component that can control the quality of environment. Therefore, identification of substrate is an important content of spatial structure analysis.

There are three standard indicators for substrate identification, namely relatively large area, high continuity and dynamic control functions. Substrate can be identified by the classified results from remote sensing images, or through regional vegetation map or land use map. The dominant degree of a certain patch within the landscape is also known as dominance (Do). Dominance is calculated from three parameters: relative density (Rd), frequency (Rf) and landscape proportion (Lp). The mathematical formula as follow: Rd= (the number of patch i/total patches) × l00％ Rf= (sample quadrats in patch i／total quadrats) × l00％ Lp= (the area of patch i／total area of sample quadrats）× 100％

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Do=0.5 × [0.5 ×（Rd+Rf）+Lp] × 100% Landscape fragmentation can also be applied. The mathematical formula is as below: Landscape fragmentation index (FN) = ( NF­1) / MPS. (In the formula, NF is the total number of patches, and MPS is the average area of patches).

Through above analysis, the quantity and distribution of natural components in the regional ecological environment can be reflected, thus it can show the relatively accurate situation of ecological integrity.

Meanwhile it is able to reflect the landscape fragmentation situation after the implementation of such plans, thus to explain the continuity of migration corridors, integrity of habitats and whether the habitat area is adequate or not.

D.5 Index method and comprehensive index method Index method is the prescriptive assessment method by the EIA for construction projects, which can be applied in biodiversity impact assessment as well. Index method is simple and compendious, and similar to the method of environmental pollution impact assessment acquainted by people. However, the hard point of index method is to establish criteria system indicating ecological quality, which is hard to be weighed or accurately quantified.

1) Single­element index method Select appropriate assessment standards, collect current data in the area to be assessed, and conduct assessment on the current status of biodiversity. For instance, take the forest coverage rate under same type local conditions as the standard to assess the vegetation coverage situation in linear projects affected areas.

This method can also be applied in prediction assessment on biodiversity impacts. For example, take current vegetation coverage in assessed area as the standard, and conduct prediction assessment on the change of vegetation coverage after the implementation of linear projects.

2) Comprehensive index method (1) Analyze the characteristics and changing rules of biodiversity elements studied and assessed.

(2) Establish the indicator system reflecting characteristics of biodiversity elements.

(3) Define assessment standards.

(4) Set up assessment function curve, and transform the current status value (prior to regional development and project construction) and predicted value (after the regional development and project construction) of ecological environment and biodiversity elements into the dimensionless quality indicator for ecological environment. Utilize the range 1~0 to indicate the quality (“1” stands for the best, superior, primitive or little human disturbed ecological environment and biodiversity; “0” stands for the worst, extremely destroyed ecological environment and biodiversity with little biological signs. This classification actually defines the quality standards of ecological environment.) , and calculate the changing value of biodiversity elements before and after the construction of linear projects.

(5) Entitle the weight to each element according to their relative importance.

(6) Integrate the changing value of all elements, thus to put forward the comprehensive impact assessment value, as below

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n

DE = å ( Ehi - Eqi ) ´ Wi i =1

In the formula: D E ­ changing value of biodiversity elements before and after the construction of linear projects;

Eh i ­ Quality indicator of element i after the construction of linear projects; Eq i ­ Quality indicator of element i before the linear project; W i ­ The weight of element i 3) Application of index method (1) For quality assessment of single biodiversity element (2) For comprehensive quality assessment of multi­biodiversity elements (3) For ecosystem functional assessment.

D.6 Analogical analysis Analogy analysis is an often used assessment method for qualitative and semi­quantitative analysis, that is to analyze or predict potential biodiversity impacts that may caused by planned linear projects on the basis of current biodiversity impacts caused by existing linear projects. Since biodiversity and ecological impacts have the characteristics such as gradually progressive, accumulative, complicate and comprehensive, which make the cause­effect relations of many impacts complex, therefore it is a very important impact prediction and assessment method to survey and analyze the biodiversity impacts of existing linear projects, thus to analogically analyze the biodiversity impacts of planned projects. Proper selection of analogical targets (high similarity) is the basis of analogical analysis or prediction assessment, which is as well critical to the success of such method. Generally, there are integral analogy and single item analogy.

D.7 Ecological quality index method (EQI) EQI is applicable for assessment on the changing range of ecological quality, which can also be applied in biodiversity impact assessment. The method of EQI is guided by the theory of vegetation zoning, and raised appropriate indicator system for the eight major vegetation zones distributed in China, which has broken up the limitation of administrative boundary, while taking into consideration the primitive ecological state under different geological and climate conditions. The method of EQI mainly consists of three parts: construct the hierarchical model for ecological indicator system by applying analytical hierarchical process (AHP); calculate weights by using Matlab; and evaluate ecological state by using EQI calculation formula. a) Modeling with analytical hierarchical process Analytical hierarchical process is applicable in solving issues that quantitative analysis can be completely utilized. Feature of this method is that it can mathematization the thinking process of decision making with few quantitative information, on the basis of in­depth analysis into the natures of complicate issues, impacting elements and their internal relations. Therefore, it provides simple decision making ways to solve complicate issues with multi­objectives, multi­principles or without structural characteristics, and establishes mathematical models.

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b) Matlab method for weight calculation Matlab is a convenient tool for weight calculation, which can program calculation procedures while reduce the work quantity of matrix calculation when identifying weight. c) EQI assessment 1) EQI index EQI = (ni coniferous forest + n2 broadleaf forest +n3 shrub and coppice wood + n4 deserts and drought shrubs + n5 grassland + n6 meadows + n7 herbal swamps) / total area In the formula: ni – Weights of different vegetation types in a certain vegetation area (i = 1,2,…7, items can be omitted according to real situation) 2) Classification of ecological status According to ecological status index, ecological status can be classified into five ranks: excellent, good, average, relatively poor, and poor.

3) Classification of changing range of ecological status.

The changing range of ecological status is classified into 4 ranks: no evident change, slight change (positive or negative), evident change (positive or negative), prominent change (positive or negative) .

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Appendix E (documentary appendix) Monitoring methods for major biological groups Monitoring indicators vegetation Plants, vegetation components, distributions, coverage, coverage rate and biomass Wild animals and soil ①birds animals Indicator types

②large mammal

Monitoring methods Statistics and sample plot investigation and harvest method

①statistics

③trap method

④insects

④direct and indirect sampling (sweeping method)

⑥soil microorganism

① 100 m*100 m sampling plot

②route statistics

③rodents

⑤soil animals

Requirements for locations 1000 m 2 forest, 500 m 2 scattered woods and shrub, 100 m 2 herbosa, randomly selected locations.

⑤hand­picking method, colander method, and indoor cultivation

②sampling line about 5000m long ③catchers every 5­10m ④typical sampling areas ⑤random sampling

⑥laboratory analysis

Aquatic life

①large plants

①steel traps with nets

②plankton plants

②netting of plankton, precipitation method

③plankton animals

Within the scope of surveys

③netting of plankton, precipitation method

④benthos ⑤nekton animals

④ vegetable puree method

⑥bacteria

⑤net and tool method

⑦fishes

⑥plate method and direct counting method

Monitoring system

①3­4 sampling plots in each type of habitat ②using counter to count the 5000m sampling line ③catching for 3 days continuously ④taking 20 samples within 10m ⑤sampling at 5cm, 10cm, 15cm and 30cm above ground respectively ① 1­2 times per year ②4 times per year ③4 times per year ④ 2­4 times per year ⑤once a year ⑥twice a year

River and lake bio­productivity

①primary productivity of

⑦ electroshock and netting ①4C， black and white Within the scope of surveys dissolved oxygen

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⑦4 times per year

4 ­12 times per year

Social activities of human beings

plankton plants

method

②chlorophyll

②spectrophotometric method surveys

①forestry economy

Within the scope of assessment

②monitoring on pollutants ③bio­toxicity

Biodiversity indicators

④ecological evaluation ①diversity of animals and plants

surveys

Within the scope of assessment

Survey and interpretation by remote sensing

Within the scope of assessment

②habitats ③characteristics of populations and groups

River integrity indicators

④protected species ①smoothness of river channel ②naturalness of river channels and river banks ③stability of flow volume and state

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Appendix F Instruction on diction in this Guideline Instructions on diction indicating the severity of requirements are given as below, for differentiated treatment when executing this Guideline: (1) Very strict, must do: “must” for positive “forbid” for negative (2) Strict, should do in normal circumstances: “should” for positive “should not” or “can not” for negative (3) The first choice when there are options and circumstance are allowed: “ought to” for positive “better not to” for negative (4) Use “could” when there are different options, and could do in certain circumstances.

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Guideline for Biodiversity Impact Assessment of Mining Development Projects

136

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Contents 1 General Principles..................................................................................................................................140 1.1 Purposes of Editing...........................................................................................................................140 1.2 Applicable Scope ..............................................................................................................................140 1.3 Assessment Principles.......................................................................................................................140 1.4 Scope of Assessment Work ...............................................................................................................140 1.5 Contents of Assessment Work...........................................................................................................140 1.6 Ranking of Assessment Work ...........................................................................................................141 2 Normative References............................................................................................................................142 3 Terms and Definitions............................................................................................................................143 4 Project Overview and Engineering Analysis .......................................................................................145 4.1 Project Overview ..............................................................................................................................145 4.2 Engineering Analysis ........................................................................................................................145 4.3 Focuses of Survey and Analysis .......................................................................................................145 5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity ..........................................................146 5.1 Survey on the Current Status of Biodiversity ...................................................................................146 5.1.1 Requirements for surveys on the current status of biodiversity .................................................146 5.1.2 Contents of Surveys on the Current Status of Biodiversity........................................................146 5.2 Assessment on Biodiversity Current Status ......................................................................................146 5.2.1 Contents of current status assessment ........................................................................................146 5.2.2 Requirements for assessment on current status..........................................................................147 6 Assessment of Biodiversity Impact prediction.....................................................................................148 6.1 Principles of Biodiversity Impact Prediction ....................................................................................148 6.2 Methods of assessment of biodiversity impacts prdiction ................................................................148 6.3 Contents of Biodiversity Impact Prediction......................................................................................148 6.4 Analysis of Accumulative Biodiversity Impacts ...............................................................................148 6.5 Analysis of Residual Biodiversity Impacts .......................................................................................148 7 Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration.........................................................................................150 7.1 Principles and Requirements.............................................................................................................150 7.2 Prevention and Restoration Measures against Biodiversity Impacts ................................................150 7.3 Alternative Plans ...............................................................................................................................150 8 Biodiversity Monitoring and Management..........................................................................................151 8.1 Biodiversity Monitoring....................................................................................................................151 8.2 Biodiversity Conservation Management...........................................................................................151 9 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation and Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts.......................................................................................................................................................152 9.1 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation .......................................................................152 138

9.2 Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts .................................................................................152 10 Conclusions...........................................................................................................................................153 Appendix A (normative references) Classification of Sensitive Ecological Areas................................154 Appendix B (documentary appendix) Methods of Survey on Biodiversity Current Status ...............156 Appendix C (documentary appendix) Indicators for Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity................................................................................................................................................159 Appendix D (normative appendix) Specifications and Requirements for Graphs Required by Biodiversity Impacts Assessment.............................................................................................................162 Appendix E (documentary appendix) Methods for Biodiversity Impact Assessment and Prediction ....................................................................................................................................................................164 Appendix F (documentary appendix) Recommended Methods for Prediction Assessment of Biodiversity Impact...................................................................................................................................165 Appendix G (documentary appendix) Monitoring Methods for Major Biological Groups and Communities..............................................................................................................................................168

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1 General Principles 1.1 Purposes of Editing This Guideline is edited to regulate biodiversity assessment in the development of mineral resources, with standards, principles, contents and methods of assessment defined, and technological requirements unified.

1.2 Applicable Scope This Guideline is applicable to EIA of solid mineral resource development projects within Chongqing, excluding development projects of oil, gas and radioactive mineral resources.

1.3 Assessment Principles (1) The principle of being scientific and feasible The assessment must be clear and scientific; meanwhile, indicators defined in the Guideline must be based on existing objective facts, and feasible.

(2) The principle of focusing on key points while considering integrity As an integral whole, the assessment is expected to comprehensively and completely reflects characteristics of biodiversity within the assessed area from different aspects; selected assessment indicators shall be representative, comprehensive and rich in contents, thus analysis and assessment shall be conducted through specific indicators.

(3) The principle of combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies Adhere to the principle of applying both quantitative methodology and qualitative methodology.

Quantitative methods should be adopted for survey and analysis in the evaluation of ecological impact.

When the current scientific methods cannot meet the needs of quantitative analysis, or quantitative analysis is not applicable due to other reasons, qualitative and analogy methodology can be applied for description and analysis.

1.4 Scope of Assessment Work The biodiversity impact assessment shall fully reflect the integrity of ecology in project area, containing all the directly and indirectly affected areas of assessed projects. The scope of assessment work is decided by the way and extent that ecological elements are impacted, and by the mutual influences and dependences between those ecological elements. Recommend to keep conformity with the scope of non­polluting ecological impact assessment.

1.5 Contents of Assessment Work There are two types of biodiversity impact assessment for development projects of mineral resources.

One is subject assessment, which includes the following contents: Project overview, and engineering analysis; Survey and assessment on the current status of biodiversity; Identification of biodiversity impacts; 140

Environmental impact prediction and assessment of biodiversity; Biodiversity conservation and restoration measures; Biodiversity monitoring and management; Conclusion of biodiversity impact assessment etc.

The other is as a part subordinated to the ecological section or an ecological subject, thus the contents are largely simplified, with mainly the survey and assessment on the current status of biodiversity, environmental impact prediction and assessment for biodiversity, conclusion of biodiversity impact assessment etc.

1.6 Ranking of Assessment Work According to ecological sensitivity in mineral resource development projects impacted areas, and the ecological impact scope of assessment objectives, the biodiversity impact assessment is thus classified into rank I, II and III. See table 1.7­1.

Whenever critical ecologically sensitive areas are involved and severe impacts may happen to biodiversity within the area potentially, Assessment I is required; Assessment II will be performed in circumstances that no irreversible ecological impacts occur, or ecological functions can be recovered through human endeavor, or the restricted ecological impacts will not cause damages to the major ecological functions or severe loss of biodiversity within the project area; Assessment III is required for other mineral resource development projects.

For underground mining, assessment rank could be adjusted, when the project area is not sensitive and little impact will be caused to biodiversity.

Table 1.6­1 Requirements on Biodiversity Impact Assessment Ranking of Mineral Resource Development Projects Ecological sensitivity of Assessment ranks impacted area Size > 30km 2

Size 10 ～ 30km 2

Critically ecological I sensitive area Importantly ecological I sensitive area Generally ecological II sensitive area Ecological sensitivity of impacted area: see appendix A

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Size < 10km 2

I

I

II

III

III

III

2 Normative References Articles in the following documents are cited in this Guideline. For those documents without dates being noted, their presently effective versions are applicable to this Guideline.

HJ/T2.1 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – General Outline HJ/T19­1999 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment – Non­pollution Ecological Impacts HJ/T192 Technical Specifications for Ecological Environment Assessment (On Trial) HJ463 Technical Guidelines for Environmental Impact Assessment of Plan – Overall Plan of Coal Mines

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3 Terms and Definitions The following terms and definitions are applicable to this Guideline: Mineral resources Industrially valuable collection of minerals and elements, with development value, buried underground or exposed on surface through geological ore­forming process.

Mine Mine refers to an independent business unit of ore exploration at a certain scale. A mine contains one or several mining workshops (or pithead, mining well, open pit etc.) and some supporting workshops.

Underground mining Underground mining refers to the operation of mining through tunnel excavation.

Opencast mining Opencast mining refers to the mining of ore resources exposed on surface.

Ecological impact Any positive or negative effect to ecosystems, biological elements and non­biological elements within the ecosystems caused by economic and social activities of human beings are referred to as ecological impact.

According to the difference of objects being impacted, ecological impacts are classified into impacts on biological elements including species, species groups, bio­communities and ecosystems, and impacts on non­biological elements containing climate, soil, landscape, hydrology etc.; according to the natures of impacts, ecological impacts can be divided into positive impact and negative impact; by sources of impacts, there are direct impacts, indirect impacts and cumulative impacts; and by the results of impacts, there are reversible impacts and irreversible impacts.

Direct ecological impact Direct ecological impact refers to those ecological impacts that are caused by human activities unavoidably, simultaneously and at the same place with the activities.

Indirect ecological impact It refers to ecological impacts that are caused by human activities, but not occur simultaneously or at the same place.

Accumulative ecological impact It refers to the accumulation or expansion of ecological impacts caused by all components of human activities and other related activities (including those in the past, at present and in the future).

Ecologically impacted area Areas affected by ecological impacts resulted from economic and social activities of human beings

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Species Biological group with certain forms, physiological features and natural distributions Biodiversity Biodiversity refers to the stable ecological complex composed of various life forms (including animals, plants and microorganisms) integrating under certain rules within a given area. Only ecosystem diversity and species diversity are considered in this Guideline.

Habitat Habitat is the geological environment where biological individuals, groups and communities inhabited, including necessary surviving conditions and ecological elements that have effect on other living beings.

Landscape Landscape refers to the area with spatial heterogeneity, composed of patches and ecosystems that have mutual effects on each other, appearing repeatedly in similar forms.

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4 Project Overview and Engineering Analysis 4.1 Project Overview Project geographical location: including the administrative jurisdiction location, traffic location etc.

Project overview: including construction contents, scope of mines and status of resources, main equipments, public utilities, staffing and major technical and economic indicators etc.

Project land use and residents relocation: including the size of land used, current status of land use, status of industrial and mining facilities around, population to be relocated, relocation methods and destinations etc.

Current status of natural and social environment of the construction area

4.2 Engineering Analysis 4.2.1 Collection of project related materials (1) Project design materials: including locations of major and supporting facilities, size of the project, project type, process, design documents and contents etc.

(2) Project plot plan: on which surface conditions shall be indicated (mainly including topography, major water­bodies, vegetation type and distribution), the distribution of villages, towns, mining facilities and large buildings and structures around the project area shall be indicated, and the mine area and assessment area shall be marked as well.

4.2.2 Brief description and analysis on the planned major and supporting projects (major engineering measures, process, construction methods and operational features etc.)

4.2.3 Analysis on the way biodiversity is impacted by engineering measures during project construction shall mainly include vegetation and topographical changes due to project land use, the changes of land use purposes and impacts on natural resources caused by the change of ecological elements.

4.2.4 Analysis on the impacting approaches of project operation to biodiversity shall mainly include the changes of regional landscape structure, land use situation, vegetation growth impacted by the loss of underground water, and biodiversity damages caused by mine development induced geological hazards.

4.3 Focuses of Survey and Analysis Define the focuses of survey and analysis according to the characteristics of projects, ecological characteristics in the region and interactive relationship between the assessed projects and impacted areas, with major contents as below: 1) Engineering activities that might have great impacts on biodiversity; 2) Engineering activities that have relations with critically and importantly sensitive biodiversity areas; 3) Engineering activities that may have indirect impacts on biodiversity; 4) Engineering activities that may cause significant use and allocation of resources.

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5 Survey and Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity 5.1 Survey on the Current Status of Biodiversity 5.1.1 Requirements for surveys on the current status of biodiversity Surveys on the current status of biodiversity are the grounds and basis for biodiversity status assessments and biodiversity impact prediction. Contents and indicators being surveyed should reflect background characteristics of biodiversity and the existing major issues in the project affected areas. Such surveys should include field work based on data and materials collected, and scope of the survey should not be less than the scope of assessment. See Appendix B for the methods of survey on biodiversity status.

5.1.2 Contents of Surveys on the Current Status of Biodiversity Status survey in assessment III is focused on data searching and reviewing and field survey (qualitative survey), including project impacts on vegetation types and distribution; wild animals species, rare animal and plant species, group size, ecological habits, group structure, habitat conditions and distribution, protection levels and status; types, levels, scope, functional zoning and major protecting targets of nature reserves affected by the project; major existing ecological and natural disaster issues impacting the maintenance of biodiversity in affected areas.

Except for above surveys on basic characteristics, assessment I and II shall conduct quadrat survey and calculated diversity index; and assessment I shall conduct stack analysis in GIS using remote sensing data.

Quadrat survey could be commissioned to personnel and institutions with relevant expertise background.

5.2 Assessment on Biodiversity Current Status 5.2.1 Contents of current status assessment (1) Generally describe the quality of current biodiversity status and its changing trend in the area to be assessed, analyze and assess the components, distribution, development trend and interference tolerance of animals, plants and other biological elements in the affected area; when sensitive species under protection are involved in the assessed area, analysis focus shall be given to the habitat, ecological habits of such sensitive species, and the ecological quality of such species shall be assessed at species level or community level.

(2) Analyze major factors impacting the ecological quality of the affected area, on the basis of elaborated ecosystem status. From the perspective of ecosystem integrity, evaluate the structure and function status of ecosystem, pressures and existing issues encountered by the ecosystem, and the general changing trend of ecosystem.

(3) Find out whether landscape types appear to be unique or abundant within the area, or whether the area contains landscape types that are under poor protection in other areas.

(4) Identify and select major biodiversity issues that affect soil, geological and hydrological elements in the area, and analyze the restrictive relations between such issues and the assessed projects; by adopting protection and compensation measures, the assessed projects shall mitigate and improve existing biodiversity issues, at least not further intensify existing biodiversity issues.

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5.2.2 Requirements for assessment on current status (1) Text For assessment I, all­around, detailed and profound assessment is required for biodiversity in the area to be assessed, including all indicators listed, and quantify indicators that can be quantified. For assessment II, all­around and detailed assessment is required, and both qualitative description and quantitative analysis should be adopted. For assessment III, assessments are required for rare and endangered species, major vegetation types and ecological functional zoning, taking qualitative description as the main method.

Assessments at different ranks all need to have indicators of current status assessment. See Appendix C for recommended biodiversity indicators.

(2) Attached graphs See Appendix D for requirements on collection and development of maps and graphs.

(3) Appendices The following appendices are required for assessment I and II: investigation table of vegetation quadrats, list of main species (plants, animals and aquatic species). Prior to the vegetation quadrat investigation, the representativeness of selected quadrats should be explained; main species resources should be listed by different habitats within the mine area.

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6 Prediction Assessment of Biodiversity Impact 6.1 Principles of Biodiversity Impact Prediction Objective: the impacts of project on environment should be objectively and scientifically predicted and assessed; Practical: prediction methods should be target­oriented, practical and feasible; Focused: detailed and all­around prediction and assessments should be conducted for important environmental elements.

6.2 Methods of assessment for biodiversity impacts Common and mature methods that meet the requirements of biodiversity impact prediction should be selected according to project features and environmental conditions. Common and mature methods that can meet prediction requirements are the choices; for environmental elements that can be predicted with metric, quantitative methods should be adopted in line with national and local environmental laws, regulations and codes; for environmental elements that are hard to be predicted with metric, qualitative or semi­quantitative methods can be adopted in the prediction. See Appendix F for common assessment and prediction methods, and see Appendix G for recommended methods by this Guideline.

6.3 Contents of Biodiversity Impact Prediction (1) Using the recommended methods in this Guideline to determine whether the biodiversity impacts caused by mineral resource development are acceptable or not.

(2) Whether mineral resource development causes new ecological changes to species and ecosystem functions; are new changes positive or negative, and the extent of such changes.

(3) Impact assessment on sensitive areas, rare and endangered species, and other protection targets should be conducted in the circumstance that the attributes, characteristics, legal status and protection requirements of such protection targets are clear. Analyze and assess the paths, approaches and extent of project impacts, and predict the potential consequences.

(4) What kind of changes (e.g. reduction of size, change of shape) will the development projects bring to vegetation types and distributions of biological communities?

6.4 Analysis of Accumulative Biodiversity Impacts (1) Analysis of accumulative impacts is conducted from the perspectives of time and space; (2) Common methods for accumulative impact assessment include: experts consultancy, checklist verification, matrix, grid method, system flow chart, environmental mathematical modeling, capacity analysis, graph overlaying, scenario analysis etc.

6.5 Analysis of Residual Biodiversity Impacts Residual impacts refer to unavoidable effects on biodiversity in the process of mineral resource development, though all the protection and mitigation measures have been considered. Main contents of residual impacts include the following: (1) Whether the loss of biodiversity is acceptable or not;

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(2) Whether important habitats or species extinct, and what impacts will it cause to ecosystem functions; (3) Whether the loss of functions of threatened community is acceptable or not, and etc.

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7 Biodiversity Conservation and Restoration 7.1 Principles and Requirements (1) Whenever irreversible impacts might happen to rare and endangered species, sensitive areas and other ecological elements, reliable avoidance measures and optimization measures for engineering design must be in place.

(2) Whenever protected species and sensitive areas are involved, biodiversity compensation measures must be developed to protect the species and areas; biodiversity compensation measures should be developed in line with the implementation phases of projects, and effects of compensation measures must be reviewed and assessed, including the estimation of cost and time; (3) Restoration and compensation measures must be ready for the loss of natural resources that recover slowly and require longer renewable cycle; (4) For loss of common resources that have shorter renewable cycle, compensation measures are not required when the basic conditions for their renewal are not reversed; (5) Biodiversity Conservation Plan for such projects must be in place.

7.2 Prevention and Restoration Measures against Biodiversity Impacts Measures of prevention, mitigation, restoration, compensation, management, scientific research and monitoring must be ready according to the victims, scope, time and extent of negative impacts caused by development projects. Protection measures should include protection targets and objectives, contents of measures, scale and technological processes of protection facilities, location and sequence of implementation, implementation guarantee measures, analysis of expected results etc.; management regulations for construction and operation must be in place to support the main work of such projects.

When protected plants or other plants with protective values are affected by negative impacts, measures such as engineering prevention and protection, transplantation, introduced reproduction ad cultivation, germplasm preservation and management should be proposed. When vegetations are damaged by project construction, vegetation restoration and greening measures should be developed.

When the habitats of protected terrestrial animals or other terrestrial animals with protective values are damaged, or their living conditions are changed, protection and management measures such as establishment of new habitats must be recommended.

7.3 Alternative Plans 7.3.1 Alternative plans are other options of size and locations for development projects, including the comparison of multiple biodiversity conservation measures. Essentially, alternative plans should achieve the same objectives and effects as the original project or plan, and the advantages and shortages of alternative plans must be stated in the assessment.

7.3.2 Assessment above Rank II must conduct comparison of project alternative plans. Comparison of alternative plans must be conducted for critical issues and biodiversity conservation measures.

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8 Biodiversity Monitoring and Management 8.1 Biodiversity Monitoring Propose long term monitoring plan for species with important ecological effects, and for mineral resource development projects with large ecological risks and environmentally sensitive, identify monitoring methods, frequency, funding, and working organizations, and carry out review evaluations phase by phase.

Monitoring stations and spots should be deployed in line with the distribution of important ecosystems and species, being representative and accessible.

Monitoring scope should be appropriate according to the scope of assessment, ensuring the integrity of ecosystem, while reflecting the living habits and features of monitoring targets. See Appendix E for monitoring methods of major biological groups and communities.

8.2 Biodiversity Conservation Management The contents of biodiversity conservation and management include the compilation of management plan, development of implementation management measures for biodiversity conservation, conducting qualitative analysis and assessment on biodiversity, and carrying out scientific researches and technological management.

(1) With the precondition of executing national and local laws and regulations regarding natural resource protection, develop and implement supervising management measures for biodiversity conservation and restoration.

(2) Integrate biodiversity conservation and management staffing into the environmental management organization of development projects, and define the roles and responsibilities of those biodiversity conservation and management staffs.

(3) Develop and implement biodiversity monitoring (surveillance) plan for development projects, and report to upper level administrative authority and environmental protection department when issues are observed, big issues in particular, for timely solutions.

(4) Development projects causing damages to natural resources must have biodiversity compensation measures developed according to the scope and extent of damages. The effects of compensation measures shall be reviewed and assessed, select suitable ones, and confirm the fund and time.

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9 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation and Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts 9.1 Investment Estimation of Biodiversity Conservation All the relevant investments should be listed, including those on biodiversity conservation measures to mitigate negative biodiversity impacts and meet the requirements of ecosystem functions, and those on biodiversity management measures, biodiversity monitoring and researches, as well as those on proper compensations to victims of environmental impacts that are hard to be restored and protected.

Estimation of investments on biodiversity conservation should be classified into biodiversity conservation investment, biodiversity monitoring investment, investment on instruments, equipments and installation, investment on temporary environmental protection facilities, and independent costs.

9.2 Cost­benefit Analysis of Biodiversity Impacts Cost­benefit analysis of biodiversity impacts should include cost analysis, economic benefit analysis and major conclusions.

Economic cost analysis of biodiversity impacts should include investment on environmental protection to avoid and mitigate negative environmental impacts, and biodiversity loss caused by such development projects.

Economic benefits of biodiversity refer to social, economic and environmental benefits resulted from positive biodiversity impacts caused by development projects, and benefits gained after adoption of environmental protection measures.

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10 Conclusions 10.1 Project assessment should have biodiversity impact assessment conclusions compiled, if the biodiversity impact assessment is not an independent subject report, then section conclusions should be complied. Contents of section conclusions are basically the same.

10.2 Contents of conclusion include assessment on current status of biodiversity within the project area, prediction and assessment of biodiversity impacts caused by mineral resource development projects, biodiversity conservation measures and recommendations etc.

10.3 Final conclusions of biodiversity impact assessment should advise whether the size and location of development projects are reasonable or not, and whether the biodiversity impacts occurred in different phases are acceptable or not.

10.4 When project and biodiversity related comparison of alternative plans are required in the process of assessment, recommendation of plans should be clarified and justified in the conclusion.

10.5 Constructive recommendations should be given in the conclusion targeting at biodiversity impact monitoring system, biodiversity environment management and biodiversity plan.

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Appendix A (normative references) Classification of Sensitive Ecological Areas Types of ecosystem Forest ecosystem

Grassland ecosystem

Critically sensitive ecological area ① (a) protected targets agreed by international conventions and protocols；(b) protected and monitored targets identified by national laws, regulations, administrative rules and plans, such as habitats of rare and endangered wildlife or special ecosystems, international biosphere reserves, core zone and buffer zone of national nature reserves, protected areas for river sources; (c) habitats of species listed in the protection list for rare animals and plants, and habitats for other endemic species; ②important natural forests and tropical rainforests; ③areas with great ecological values, such as biological corridors, flood plain; ④ enclosed protected areas for desertification of land; ⑤Other scientifically identified areas.

Same as those described in forest ecosystem;

Important sensitive ecological area ①experimental zones of national nature reserves, provincial nature reserves/scenic parks/forest parks, first and secondary­level water source conservation areas, river source areas, flood retarding basin, protected areas for flood prevention; ②ecological areas, such as slope land with gradient larger than 25 degrees, key areas for soil erosion treatment, key protected areas for prevention, importantly monitored areas; ③natural and secondary forests with coverage larger than 1 hm 2 , or tropical rainforests; ④ Shelter forests, roadside woods, experimental woods, seed stand, returned forest land.

①Typical grassland/ grass hill/ grass slope larger than 1 hm 2 ;

②Important pasture, cutting grassland, artificial grassland for animal husbandry, grassland returned from farmland, improved grassland, grass seed base, and experimental grassland for scientific research and teaching.

Farmland ecosystem Basic farmland and fish ponds.

—— Note a: international conventions, protocols and agreements: Convention on Biological Diversity, Convention on Protection of Wildlife, United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, Ramsar Convention, Convention Concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage, Plant Protection Agreement for the South­East Asia and Pacific Region, International Tropical Timber Agreement, Sino­Japan Agreement Concerning the Conservation of Migratory Birds and Their Habitats, Sino­US Protocol on Nature Conservation, Sino­Mongolia Agreement Concerning the Conservation of Natural Environment, China­North Korea Agreement on Environmental Protection Cooperation, Agreement between China, Russia and Mongolia on the Establishment of International Nature Reserve etc.

Note b: national laws, regulations, administrative rules and plans: Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Nature Reserves, Scenic Spots and Historical Sites Regulations, Management Regulations of the People’s Republic of China on Pollution Prevention and Control in Protected Areas for Drinking Water Sources, Fisheries Law of the People’s Republic of China, Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Wildlife, Forest Law of the People’s Republic of China, Grassland Law of the People’s Republic of China, Regulations of the People’s Republic of 154

China on Water and Soil Conservation, Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Protection of Cultural Relics, Law of the People’s Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Desertification, and etc.

Note c: rare animals and plants: species under key protection and listed in List of Wild Animals under National Key Protection, List of Wild Plants under National Key Protection (the first group), and China Species Red List.

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Appendix B (documentary appendix) Methods of Survey on Biodiversity Current Status B.1 Method for data collection It refers to the collection of data that can reflect the current status of biodiversity. In terms of form, data can be divided into literal text and diagrams; in terms of time, it can be divided into historical data and current data; in terms of data sources, there are environmental impact report, ecological protection plans, and ecological function zoning plans, basic situation of sensitive ecological areas, Chongqing database of species resources, and other scientific investigation reports. While data collection methods are applied, make sure the timeliness of data, and field verifications are required for cited data.

B.2 Quadrat sampling and line sampling 1. Vascular plants and vegetation (1) Survey on vegetation type (list quadrat) ① Principles for the settlement of sampling sites: refer to 1:50,000 and 1:10,000 topographic maps, satellite map or forest distribution map, and set quadrat sites on or close to the route of planned projects, taking into consideration the balance and environmental differences; avoid repetition of the same type vegetation when setting sample quadrats, additional sample quadrats can be set up for specially important vegetations in line with the changing situation of plants; representative sample quadrats should be selected for different vegetation types. Sensitive and fragile biodiversity areas should not be missed when setting up sample quadrats. ② The size of quadrat: quadrat size of ever­green broadleaf forest community is 400 m 2 （20 m×20 m）, that of deciduous broadleaf forest, coniferous forest, and coniferous­broadleaf forest is 100 m 2 （10 m×10 m）. Sample quadrats are usually in the shape of square, or rectangle in special cases, but the shortest line 2 of such rectangle should not less than 5m. Size of shrub communities is 25 m （5 m×5 m） ; Size of plateau 2 2 communities is 4m （2 m×2 m）, and that for others is 1m （1 m×1 m）. ③ Quantity of sample quadrats: quantity is decided according to the size and structure of bio­communities within the assessed scope. Set up more sample quadrats when the bio­communities have large size and diversified structures, and less sample quadrats for small and single­structured bio­communities. Usually, there should be 1~3 sample quadrats for each bio­community. ④ Quadrat method: A. Take photos of the outlook and hierarchy structures of plants communities, and photograph/collect dominant species, protected and endemic species, ancient and precious trees, alien invasive species, and individuals of questionable species including flowers, fruits and twigs.

B. Fill the sample quadrat form, which is composed of the overview form and sub­forms. External features are documented on the overview form, including latitude and longitude, elevation, slope gradient, slope orientation, substrate type, location, relation to the project, outlook features of the bio­community, and surrounding environment. The sub­forms are simplified based on the quadrat method of Anglo­American school, which is mainly used to document the height of vegetations at arbor, shrub and grass levels, crown density, dominant species of each vegetation structure level, species name, quantity, height, breast­height diameter, crown density, phonological phase and viability of plants in arbor vegetations; and species name, abundance, height, crown density, crown diameter, phonological phase and viability of plants in shrub and grass vegetations.

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⑤ Field survey equipments: Hand­hold GPS, geological compass, topographical map (1:50,000 and 1: 10,000), camera, steel tape measure, rope measure, plant specimen holder, scissor, and sample quadrat form.

(2) Survey on the components of plant species (the combination of line sampling and list quadrat) ① The selection of sampling line and quadrat: refer to 1:50,000 and 1:10,000 topographical maps, satellite maps and forest distribution map, and set sampling lines in different geo­locations, habitats and elevation zones. Sample quadrats are the survey sites for vegetation types. ② Methods: walk along the selected sampling lines, register types and species of plants along the lines, observe the habitats, and visually estimate the abundance; photograph/collect dominant species, protected and endemic species, ancient and precious trees, alien invasive species, and individuals of questionable species including flowers, fruits and twigs.

The survey results of vegetation sample quadrat can be directly applied here.

2. Terrestrial wild vertebrates (sampling belt, line and spot) The distribution of animals is closely related to the differentiations of habitats. Of all the habitat conditions, vegetation is the most important one, thus the survey on animals can be conducted on the basis of vegetation survey. ① The selection of survey lines and spots: set up sampling lines according to the distribution of different habitats, and sampling spots are set up on the sampling lines. Since amphibian, reptile animals and waterfowls are closely related to waters, 3~4 sampling lines can be set up in each river within the assessed scope, with the length of 150m for each sampling line; mammals and forest fowls are usually distributed in forests, shrubs and grasslands, thus sampling belts with the length of 3km and width of 50m can be set up in different vegetation type area. If restricted by geological conditions, quadrat method could be applied, ② Method: for sampling lines or belts, walk along the selected sampling lines, register types and species of plants along the lines, observe the habitats, and visually estimate the abundance; photograph the common species, questionable species, protected and endemic species, and alien invasive species. Take photos of living bodies observed in sample quadrats, and carefully check signs of animals such as droppings, footprints, nests, and bitten plants.

B.3 Method of public consulting Public consultancy is supplementary to field survey, in which opinions of the general public, social groups and related management departments in projects affected areas should be collected, thus to identify omitted issues in field surveys, especially surveys on wild animals. Through public consultancy, data can be more effectively accessed. Public consultancy should be conducted simultaneously with data collections and field surveys.

B.4 Biological mechanism method This method is used to assess ecosystem stability in the current status indicators, majorly the indicators of resistance and resilience. Resistance is the capacity of ecosystem to resist external disturbance. Resistance is related to the evolution stage and characteristics of ecosystem, in that biological individuals are more adaptive to environmental elements and ecosystems are more mature, the resistance capacity against external disturbance will be stronger, which can be measured by productivity as well. Resilience is the capacity of ecosystem to recover to its original state after being damaged by external disturbance.

Resilience is decided by the essentials of life components (the basic characteristics of life force and continuation of biological groups) and the characteristics of biological communities.

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B.5 Index method Index method is simple, compendious, and similar to the method of environmental pollution impact assessment acquainted by people. In the assessment on current status, various indicators are selected to objectively assess the biodiversity from different perspectives, in order to truly reflect biodiversity status and existing issues in the project area.

B.6 Remote sensing Remote sensing is applicable for projects that have large affected areas or the spatial ranges of major ecological elements are relatively large, and impossible to be done manually. When the mines are relatively large or hard to access, relevant information can be obtained from remote sensing images, such as vegetation coverage, land use types etc. supporting field surveys are necessary during the remote sensing process.

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Appendix C (documentary appendix) Indicators for Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity Indicators for Assessment on the Current Status of Biodiversity

Assessment ranks applied

Major applicable method

1) Ecosystem types, distributions and functions in the assessed area.

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, remote sensing, and survey of sample lines

2) Zoning of ecological functions

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting

3) Vegetation types, major plants species and distributions

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, and survey of sample lines

4) Protected and endemic plants, and ancient trees (types, protection level, quantity, and relation with the project)

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, and survey of sample lines

5) Vegetation coverage

I, II, III

Overlaying of graphs, remote sensing

6) Types and distribution of major animal species

I, II, III

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, and survey of sample lines

7) Invasive species (types, quantity, features and distribution)

I, II

Data searching and selecting, public consultancy, and survey of sample lines

8) Protected and endemic animals (types, protection level, quantity and the relation with the project)

I, II

Data searching and selecting and survey of sample lines

9) Species relative abundance

I, II

survey of sample lines

10) Shannon­Wiener Index

I, II

survey of sample lines

11) Vegetation biomass

I, II

Data searching and selecting and quadrat survey

12) Sensitive biodiversity area

I, II

Data searching and selecting and survey of sample lines

Indicators In

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13) Ecological fragile area

I, II

Data searching and selecting and survey of sample lines

14) Stability of ecosystem

I, II

Biological mechanism method

15) Habitat fragmentation

I

Remote sensing and model calculation

C.1 Relative abundance of species Species relative abundance = number of all animal and plant species within the area/ the number of local species×100 C.2 Vegetation coverage Vegetation coverage = the vertical projected area of plants in the region/ the size of the region×100 C.3 Biomass Biomass = average net productivity × size of the area With reference to relevant documents, average net productivity of different types in Chongqing are described as below, adjustment can be made in accordance with real situation.

Deciduous and coniferous forest: 450~500g/m 2 .a Evergreen coniferous forest: 380~420 g/m 2 .a Deciduous and broadleaf forest: 660~680 g/m 2 .a Evergreen broadleaf forest: 950~1100 g/m 2 .a Coniferous and mixed forest: 460~480 g/m 2 .a Evergreen, deciduous broadleaf and mixed forest: 710~730 g/m 2 .a Shrub: 350~375 g/m 2 .a Grassland: 220~240 g/m 2 .a Farmland: 630~650 g/m 2 .a C.4Shannon­Wiener Index

In the equation above, H stands for species diversity index, S stands for the number of species, Pi stands for the proportion of i species in total samples collected.

C.5 Habitat fragmentation 160

FN =（Np­1）/ Nc In the equation above, FN stands for habitat fragmentation index in the whole area, Np stands for the total number of patches, Nc is the ratio between the size of the whole area and the size of the smallest patch.

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Appendix D (normative appendix) Specifications and Requirements for Graphs Required by Biodiversity Impacts Assessment D.1 General Principles D.1.1 Graphs of biodiversity impacts assessment are the necessary components of biodiversity assessment, as well as the main basis of assessment and analysis. Graphs herein refers to the descriptions, expressions and quantitative analysis reflected in the form of drawings and images, concerning the spatial contents in relation to biodiversity impacts assessment D.1.2 This appendix is applicable to maps with geographical and spatial information in the biodiversity assessments for mineral resource development projects, which should comply with the principles of being effective, practical and normative. Components of graphs and imaging precision are selected in line with the ranks of assessments, imaging scope and the main contents that should be reflected, and graphs should fully demonstrate the assessed projects, ecological element constitutions, spatial distributions and the relationship between assessed projects and impacted areas in terms of approaches and scales of effects.

D.2 Components of Graphs D.2.1 Graphs of biodiversity impacts assessment usually consist of basic graphs and recommended graphs, in line with different characteristics of assessed projects, different ecological sensitivities of affected areas.

D.2.2 Basic graphs required by the biodiversity impact assessment for mineral resource development projects include: topographic map, current land use map, map of vegetation types etc.

D.2.3 Requirements of graphs for different assessment ranks: only basic graphs are required by assessment rank III; for assessment rank II, distribution map of animals and plants, natural disaster extent and distribution map, completion maps of assessment and prediction on major elements are required and should be displayable in GIS; for assessment rank I, satellite photos are required for interpretation, graphs of surface survey, measurement and sampling analysis are needed as supplementation, satellite photos should be enlarged and printed matching the scale of topographic maps, and images must be processed to make assessment contents outstanding.

When special ecological sensitive areas are involved in the assessed projects, special space map must be provided to reflect features of ecological sensitivities, such as space distribution map of protected species, distribution map of soil erosion. When carrying out biodiversity monitoring work, proper maps showing monitoring spots must be provided.

Whenever endangered species are involved in the project area, distribution map of endangered species is a must for all assessment ranks.

D.3 Specifications and Requirements on Mapping D.3.1 Data sources and requirements a) Sources of basic data for mapping biodiversity impacts assessment graphs can be collected from existing graphs, field surveys, experiments, ground survey, remote sensing etc. b) Sources of basic data for diagrams should meet the requirements of ecological impact assessment in terms of timeliness, and data sources that are closest to the benchmark time of assessment should be selected. When there is little change to the theme contents of graphs, requirements on timeliness of data sources can be relatively relaxed within the period when no change occurred, but information must be verified through field investigation. When there is limited capacity monitoring and data access, the latest survey and mapping data of the country can be adopted.

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D.3.2 Requirements on the precision of mapping and imaging Precision of biodiversity impact assessment graphs should comply with the one described in the project feasibility study; and scale of maps should be correspondent to space dimension of assessed elements and ecological impacts.

Biodiversity impact assessment graphs should be able to accurately and clearly reflect major contents of assessment. If the mapping scope is too large to clearly reflect the major contents of assessment, the graphs/maps can be divided into portions linked by points, lines and slides; when sensitive ecological targets are involved, separate graphs should be made in order to raise imaging precision.

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Appendix E (documentary appendix) Methods for Biodiversity Impact Assessment and Prediction E.1 Checklist or description The practice of checklist method is to list all the impacting elements of development and construction activities and all the environmental elements might be impacted in the same matrix. Analyze point by point, and elaborate the nature and intensity of every impact, thus to analyze the ecological impacts of development and construction activities. This is the recommended method for biodiversity impact assessment and prediction by this Guideline.

E.2 Overlaying of Graphs The method is to overlay at least two pieces of ecological information on one graph, making a compound graph to indicate the directions and extent of ecological changes. This method is direct, vivid, simple and clear, but it cannot be used for precise quantitative analysis.

E.4 Analogical analysis Analogical analysis is an often used assessment method for qualitative and semi­quantitative analysis, and usually there are analogical analysis of ecological integrity, ecological elements and ecological problems etc. Analogical analysis can be conducted on biodiversity changes caused by development projects with similar contents and regional environment, thus to identify biodiversity impacts caused by the assessed project.

E.5 Systematic analysis Since systematic analysis can properly resolve multiple­targeted ecological issues, it can achieve the effects that other methods cannot reach.

Specific methods applied in the systematic analysis for assessment include expert consultancy, hierarchical analysis, integrated fuzzy evaluation, comprehensive sequencing, systematic dynamics, gray relative analysis etc. These methods are all applicable for biodiversity impact assessment, and the practical operation of these methods can be referred from relevant books or magazines.

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Appendix F (documentary appendix) Recommended Methods for Prediction Assessment of Biodiversity Impact F.1 Prediction indicators See Table 1 for prediction indicators selected for different assessment ranks.

Table 1 Indicators for predictive assessment of biodiversity impact

indicators

Applicable assessment ranks

1) Leakage of surface water

I, II, III

2) Leakage of ground water

I, II, III

3) Geological disaster

I, II, III

4) Biomass

I, II

5) Vegetation coverage

I, II, III

6) Diversity of vegetation types

I, II, III

7) migration of animals

I, II

8) Invasive plants

I, II

9) Rare and protected species

I, II

10) Stability of bio­communities

I, II, III

11) Change of patch quantity

I

12) Extent of connection

I

13) Ecosystem diversity

I, II

14) Habitat fragmentation

I

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F.2 Predictive Assessment F.2.1 Properties of prediction indicators See Table 2 Table 2 Properties of prediction indicators Characteristics of impacts

Description of metrics

Recording types

Determined by

Continuity

Short term, long term or permanent

Text

Experts

Existence

Be or not be

Text

Experts

Text

Experts

Reversible or irreversible

Text

Experts

Global, regional, assessed area, or partially

Text

Experts

Direct, indirect or jointly

Text

Subjective judgment + Experts determination

Text

Subjective judgment + Experts determination

Text

Subjective judgment

Text

Experts

Text

Experts

Impact natures Negative or positive Reversibility Extent of impacts Cause­effect

No impacts, non­remarkable impacts, Remarkableness remarkable impacts, mitigated impacts, unknown impacts Certainty Certain, maybe, uncertain Severity Significance

Very severe, severe, moderate, slight Very significant, significant, moderate, low

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F.2.2 Impact assessment Select proper indicators in line with different assessment ranks, consider the impacts of different properties on biodiversity, and make integrated assessment using checklist. See Table 3.

Table 3 Integrated assessment checklist for biodiversity impacts

Existence

Impact Continuity natures

Cause Extent ­ Reversibility of remarkableness certainty Severity Significance effect impacts

Soil deterioration Vegetation coverage biomass … …

Ecosystem biodiversity

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Appendix G (documentary appendix) Monitoring Methods for Major Biological Groups and Communities Indicator types Soil

Vegetation

Monitoring indicators Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of soil Plants and vegetation components, distributions, coverage, coverage rate and biomass ①birds ②large mammal ③rodents ④insects ⑤soil animals

Wild animals and soil ⑥soil microorganism animals

Monitoring methods Physical and chemical analysis

Requirements for monitoring locations Representative and typical

100 m2 forest, 25 Statistics, m2 scattered woods sample plot and shrub, 1 m2 investigation and herbosa, randomly harvest method selected locations. ① 100 m*100 m ①statistics sampling plot ②route statistics ②sampling line about 5000m long ③trap method ④direct and indirect sampling (sweeping method) ⑤hand­picking method, colander method, and indoor cultivation

③catchers every 5­10m ④typical sampling areas ⑤random sampling

①forestry economy ②monitoring on pollutants Surveys

Within the scope of assessment

Surveys

Within the scope of assessment

③bio­toxicity ④ecological evaluation ①diversity of animals and plants

Biodiversity indicators

②habitats ③characteristics of populations and groups

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①3­4 sampling plots in each type of habitat ②using counter to count the 5000m sampling line ③catching for 3 days continuously ④taking 20 samples within 10m ⑤sampling at 5cm, 10cm, 15cm and 30cm above ground respectively

⑥laboratory analysis

Social activities of human beings

Monitoring system

④protected species ⑤ distribution density ①water conservation ②soil conservation ③environmental purification Functional indicators

④habitat surveys

Within the scope of assessment

surveys

Within the scope of assessment

⑤disaster prevention and mitigation ⑥landscape and culture ⑦important ecological functional area ①deterioration, desertification and alkalization

System indicators

②ecological balance ③climate deterioration ④natural disaster

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