Last week, when news of the deaths of the 11 tigers was released, the State Forestry Administration sent a team to investigate and local officials established task forces to take over the zoo's management.

FORBES: New Asia

But much of this is expected to be given to other agencies (the State Forestry Administration, for example, deals with stemming the spread of deserts) or to the local environmental-protection bureaus, which, being answerable to local governments, are crippled by conflicts of interest.

ECONOMIST: Environmental protection in China

The country's State Forestry Administration estimates that desertification affects 400 million Chinese, many of whom lose the ability to farm their land or graze their animals and join the ranks of the tens of millions of internal environmental refugees, who often migrate to the big cities in search of new homes and jobs.

CNN: Economic miracle, environmental disaster