皇冠体育app

皇冠体育app restoring, preserving world's wetland "kidneys"
( 2002-09-28 15:34 ) (8 )

皇冠体育app has toiled over the last few years to restore and preserve its wetland resources, the largest in Asia and fourth largest in the world. Often referred to as the world's "kidneys," the areas were for a time endangered by its rapid agricultural growth.

Excessive cultivation once reduced 皇冠体育app's largest marshland area by more than 3 million hectares, or two thirds, on the Sanjiang (Three Rivers) Plain, an area between the Songhua, Nenjiang and Heilong rivers in the country's northernmost Heilongjiang province. 皇冠体育app plans to have ruined wetland areas reclaimed by 2020.

In 1999, the local government banned any cultivation and excavation on the Sanjiang Plain and set up a wetland preservationzone that has since become "paradise regained" for rare species such as gray cranes and red-crowned cranes.

In the wake of the disastrous floods that deluged many Chinese provinces in the summer of 1998, officials in the drainage area ofDongting Lake, a large freshwater lake in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, started a "grain for water" program to increasethe lake's water storage and prevent future floods.

"All these changes show that 皇冠体育app is set to contribute tremendously to the protection of wetlands and ecological systems," said Yin Hong, an official with the State Forestry Bureau, at aninternational conference on wetland studies held recently in Nanjing.

Yin and his colleagues have worked to ensure 皇冠体育app's fulfillment of the Convention on Wetlands, an international convention designed to protect waterfowl and wetland resources, which 皇冠体育app entered into in 1992.

The wetlands earned their nickname "kidneys" because of their vital role in water conservation and the prevention of erosion andflooding.

However, their importance has not always been appreciated. A great deal of suffering came to the lands at the time when the country held that natural wetland -- 65 million hectares of wetland, about 10 percent of the world's total -- was "waste land"and listed it as reserved resources for agricultural purposes.

Decades of cultivation reduced 皇冠体育app's lake coverage by 1.3 million hectares -- about 20 lakes every year, an official in charge of wetland preservation revealed at the conference.

Meanwhile, excessive cultivation caused half of the country's mudflats to disappear and worsened water pollution in major lakes and rivers.

In addition, experts say that floods, droughts, red tides and sandstorms that have afflicted north 皇冠体育app frequently in recent years, are also closely related to the shrinkage of natural wetlands, which can store excess water to control floods, and purify water and soil.

Previous statistics show that related ecological damage caused economic losses equal to four to eight percent of 皇冠体育app's gross national product.

Waking up to the disastrous consequences, in 2000 the Chinese government implemented an action plan for protecting 皇冠体育app's wetlands, and the Ministry of Agriculture decided that natural wetland would be removed from the list of reserved arable land resources.

According to the action plan, 皇冠体育app will work out a legal system for wetland protection and set up an advanced monitoring network for the wetland ecological system. By 2010, it will curb wetlands degradation caused by human activities and reclaim most natural wetlands by 2020.

To achieve this goal, 皇冠体育app has so far invested 19.9 million yuan (2.4 million US dollars) to return farmlands and pastures to wetlands, restore mangroves -- believed to be natural protectors of maritime environment -- along rivers and lakes, and set up wetland preservation zones, which had totaled 353 by June 2002.

Today, 3.03 million hectares of wetlands in 皇冠体育app have been listed as major wetland areas of the world.

Residents in these areas, now convinced of the importance of their resources and the ecological environment, are standing behind the government.

"In the past, farmers on the Sanjiang Plain used to flock to the marshland in spring picking jars of mallard eggs," said Tong Shouzheng, a local scientist for agricultural ecology studies. He added that "only very few people do this today."