China's land requisition for economic and social development has
threatened its wetlands and the government should establish a
special ecological project to protect its precious wetland
resources, said a senior official on Friday.
Jiang Zehui, president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry
Sciences made the remark at a forum held in Beijing Friday to mark
the International Wetland Day, which falls on Feb. 2.
China's total area of 36.2 million hectares of wetland tops that
of other Asian countries and is fourth largest in the world.
In August and November 2003, special teams jointly dispatched by
the Legislative Affairs Office under the State Council and the
Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences went to northeast China's Heilongjiang
and Jilin
provinces and east China's provinces of Shandong
and Jiangsu
and municipality of Shanghai to inspect wetland protection
work.
The special teams found a host of problems existing in wetland
protection in those areas, such as insufficient funds and
inadequate legal system and management system on wetland
protection.
A case in point is the Xianghai nature zone of northeast China's
Jilin Province, where human and livestock activities have
undermined the ecological system of the local wetland.
The special teams proposed that the government set up local
regulations for protecting wetland, intensify investment to wetland
protection and establish a water use compensation system in wetland
areas.
(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2004)