The Mountains of Southwest China
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The Mountains of Southwest China biodiversity hotspot is home to several of the world's best-known mammals, including the giant panda, red panda, golden monkey and snow leopard.

The hotspot, which stretches from southeast Tibet through western Sichuan and extends into central and northern Yunnan, is also home to more than 12,000 species of higher plants, of which 29 percent are unique to this hotspot.

Threats
Direct threats to biodiversity include logging; illegal hunting and unsustainable harvest and trade of wildlife; construction of infrastructure such as roads, dams and power grids without adequate environmental mitigation plans; collection of fuel wood; mass tourism; and agricultural and population expansion.

Strategy
The Chinese Government is undertaking massive investments in reforestation projects and in conversion of pastureland to forest. The Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF) focuses on complementing this effort by providing resources to build the capacity of civil society to implement smaller, more localized conservation projects and to nurture leaders who will be capable of interjecting biodiversity aspects into the larger development efforts.

CEPF investment will ensure that regional planning authorities are provided with suggestions and innovative approaches and applied models for best practices and recommendations on how to design and implement conservation-conscious development projects.

Five strategic directions guide CEPF's approach in the Mountains of Southwest China:
  1. develop and operationalize hotspot-wide monitoring and evaluation projects
  2. support site-related projects led by civil society to mitigate key threats to natural areas and species populations
  3. build capacity of civil society to implement conservation efforts at a site and regional level
  4. integrate biodiversity conservation concerns and benefits into the implementation of policies and programs at local, regional and national levels
  5. develop and operationalize a small grants program focusing on conservation capacity-building and research projects.