1. It is a historic commitment for CAS staff to make fundamental, strategic and forward-looking contributions to the development of western China.

　　The large-scale development strategy for western China is an essential component of Comrade Deng Xiaoping's strategic thinking on China's modernization drive, which encompasses the development of both the coastal areas and the interior. According to his thinking, the coastal areas in east China would take the initiative in development through opening to the outside world, and by the time their development level reached a certain stage, they should assist development in central and western China. The turn of the century has witnessed that China is realizing the second-stage target of its modernization drive, and approaching the third-stage target. At this moment, in consideration of the overall situation throughout the country, the third-generation leadership of the Party's Central Committee with Comrade Jiang Zemin at the core issued a call to develop China's west. Implementing this policy decision is of vital importance and of far-reaching historical significance. It is crucial to our efforts to boost domestic demand, promote sustained national economic growth, strengthen national unity, safeguard social stability and consolidate border defense, as well as bring about coordinated development of regional economies for eventual common prosperity.

　　In the new century, while continuing its efforts to accelerate development in east and central China, the Government will see to it that substantial progress will be made in the west region. The initial blueprint is to generate a fundamental change in both the social and the economic development of the region in 50 years. For the large-scale development in the region, the groundwork is to upgrade the local infrastructure; the cornerstone is to restore the local ecosystem and protect the environment; the key to its success lies in local industrial restructuring; the primary condition is to develop science and technology and educational undertakings; and the engine for growth is to speed up the current reform drive and opening-up process. Together with the formulation of the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001--2005), departments and commissions under the State Council will probe key issues in this development strategy, draft plans, and progressively put them into practice.

　　It is a historic commitment bestowed by the Party and the people on the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) to make innovative contributions of primary, strategic and forward-looking significance to China's economic growth, national defense construction, and social progress. The academy will mobilize its resources and participate in the implementation of the development strategy in light of the overall situation and long-term development of China's modernization program, and in close conformity with the Party's decisions and instructions given by Comrade Jiang Zemin. This is a solemn and unshakable duty of the CAS staff, as well as an important part of the pilot project of Knowledge Innovation Program (KIP).

　　CAS has 23 research institutes (including fieldwork stations and botanic gardens) in the western hinterland. Most were established during the 1950s and 1960s to meet the urgent demands for the rehabilitation of ecosystems and the environment, the exploitation of natural resources, and the development of the regional economy. Over the past decades, their research professionals, in defiance of local harsh conditions, have made substantial contributions to social and economic development according to national targets. This contingent of S&T workers, which is deeply rooted in the soil of the region, should be the main force for our current participation in the campaign. Meanwhile, in light of national strategic goals for development in western China, our work to consolidate the research contingent and deploy and implement relevant tasks at different levels will bring in an upsurge of disciplinary developments at the CAS institutes in the region, and promote the adjustment of their internal structures and the construction of an innovative contingent of research professionals for the new century. As CAS institutes in central and east China feature a strong multi-disciplinary build-up in such fields as the environment, agriculture, biology and high technology, they could be complementary to the institutes in the western region. Provided it has well-defined targets, appropriate measures, meticulous organization and coordinated actions, the academy is therefore qualified to make contributions of fundamental, strategic and forward-looking significance to the region's development.

　　2. A work plan in accordance with the strategic goals of development in western China.

　　In line with the strategic targets set for the large-scale development of western China, and in light of the existing conditions and realities at the academy, CAS has decided to take the following actions:

　　(1) Establish a comprehensive data platform by launching a survey on the status quo of the local territorial resources and ecosystem; make clear the environmental situation in the region through probes into the regional evolutionary history; and provide scientific grounds for decision making regarding the concrete implementation of the development strategy in the region by focusing on studies of such major issues as water resources and desertification.

　　The natural environment in western China is complicated. Cold areas and arid regions exist side by side; the Loess Plateau and the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau are joined by common benches; and inland rivers flow in sharp relief against the desolate vastness of deserts. The fluvial systems of the Yellow and the Yangtze rivers share the same sources in the snow-capped mountains; the mountain-locked land mass in southwestern China is crisscrossed by xerothermal valleys. Biodiversity in the region is unique, fecund and diverse. However, for a long time, there have been severe confrontations between ecological sensitivity, environmental fragility and the need for environmental protection on the one hand, and the exploitation of natural resources on the other. Since the founding of New China in 1949, many on-the-spot surveys of territorial resources and local ecosystems in the region have been organized or carried out by governments at various levels, and R&D bodies and universities, harvesting a great wealth of precious data. Yet, they varied in spatial distribution and temporal coverage, as well as in methodological norms. In the past 20 years in particular, the ecological and environmental setting of the hinterland has seen a radical change, leading to a lack of systematic, comprehensive and continuous understanding of the real situation. It is therefore necessary to conduct a new round of integrated surveys in the region, with a stress on the northwest, and analyze the existing data. These surveys should be carried out with state-of-the-art technology, in line with the national deployment and based on existing materials. Apart from the exploration of its current state, the academy should carry out studies on the evolutionary history of the ecosystem and environment, sorting out the process of its evolutionary process and defining its evolutionary stages and positions.

　　A great number of peculiar factors have handicapped development in western China. The problems of water shortages and desertification in the northwest are serious due to low precipitation. Loose-structured topsoil and water-and-soil erosion on the Loess Plateau shed an ominous shadow over half of China's territory. The imposing Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is noted for its frigid climate and fragile ecosystems. Although southwest China has ample rainfall each year, water is deficient in the soil of karst areas. Xerothermal valleys constitute another unique geological feature in humid southwest China. Water shortages also find their expression in the devastating soil depletion in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. Although the region is noted for diversified biological population and rich biodiversity, many scientific problems are in need of an in-depth exploration regarding the protection, exploitation and utilization of this special natural endowment.

　　In addition, the regional economies are relatively underdeveloped in western China, and their industrial structure is very irrational. Only after getting a clear understanding of the current state of territorial resources, the evolutionary history of the environment, and other crucial problems concerning the indigenous ecosystems can we make effective analysis and work out a rational layout for industrial composition in the region. Hence, such issues as water resources, water-and-soil depletion, desertification, biodiversity and readjustment of industrial structure are crucial, typical, and representative problems in the coordinated development of environmental protection, ecological conservation, and socio-economic progress. Each of them is of unique importance and interactive one to another. They should be considered and examined in their entirety when designing the overall development blueprint for China's west.

　　In handling the above-listed problems, our academy will proceed through multi-disciplinary cross-breeding, synthesis of R&D results and systematic studies, so that a solid theoretical foundation will be laid for the long-time exploitation of natural resources in the western wilderness.

　　(2) Improving the environment and ecosystem monitoring network on the basis of existing fieldwork stations, and establishing demonstration projects for environment restoration and ecological agriculture in some typical regions.

　　The academy has now set up 22 fieldwork stations in ecosystems typical of China's west. Six of them are outposts designed to monitor farming practices: the experimental integrated water and soil conservation station in Ansai County, Shaanxi Province; the integrated experimental station for farming ecology in Changwu County, Shaanxi Province; the experimental station for ecology in Guyuan County, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; the experimental station for desert ecology in Fukang County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; the experimental station for farming ecology in Yanting County, Sichuan Province; and the experimental station for farming ecology in Dagze, Tibet Autonomous Region.

　　There are two outposts for forest monitoring: the Mt. Gongga ecosystems research station in Tibet Autonomous Region, and the positioning station for forest ecosystems in Maowen Qiang Minority Nationality Autonomous County, Sichuan Province.

　　There are two fieldwork stations exclusively engaged in monitoring grasslands: the station for meadow ecosystems in high and cold Haibei Tibet Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province; and the grassland experimental station in Bayanbulak, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

　　There are five desert-surveying stations: the experimental research station in Shapotou, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; the integrated desertification experimental station in Qira County; the Turpan desert research station; the Mosouwan desert research station in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; and the integrated experimental station in Linze, Jiangsu Province.

　　There are seven outposts engaged in monitoring extraordinary ecological phenomena: the glacier observation and experiment station in the Tianshan Mountains, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region; the mud-rock flow observation and research station at Dongchuan City, Yunnan Province; the hailstorm cloud observation station in Pingliang County, Gansu Province; the integrated observation and research station on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, at Golmud, Qinghai Province; the natural scenery observation and monitoring station at Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan Province; the snow pack and avalanche experiment and monitoring station in the Tianshan Mountains; and the isorrhea experimental station in Aksu County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

　　For a long time, our fieldwork scientists have been carrying out a great number of outdoor observations and field experiments in harsh working and living conditions, accumulating a wealth of hydrological, ecological and environmental data.

　　In line with the implementation of the national strategy to develop China's west, the academy will improve its monitoring network for the environment and ecology on the basis of necessary readjustment and further building up the existing fieldwork stations in the region. This is an important part of the academy's efforts to actively participate in the development of the region. In the overall layout, our plan is to engage in the following four aspects of the current framework of fieldwork outposts stationed in typical ecosystems: