The Chinese Government has banned hunting and penalized poachers as measures to protect the wetland at the Shuangtai River Mouth in northeast China’s Liaoning Province.
Since the Shuangtaihe Nature Reserve was established twelve years ago, the government has conducted 500 inspections of the ban on hunting and punished 5,000 poachers. The wetland is regarded as significant to the international study of wetlands and biological diversity. It is also one of the world’s wetlands with the best-preserved biological system.
One of the world’s largest wetlands, the 800-square-km Shuangtaihe Reserve serves as a transfer station for waterfowls to migrate from East Asia to Australia. The wetland accommodates an estimated one million waterfowls of 200 species including 30 rare species under special government protection.
Many artificial islands have been built on the lakes in the nature reserve. Trees and grass have been planted to turn the islands into ideal inhabits for such endangering species as black-mouthed gulls. At present, there are 450 such gulls on islands.
In recent years, the Shuangtai Nature Reserve has conducted extensive research cooperation with the international academic community. Researchers have bred four red-crested cranes in cooperation with their colleagues in Hong Kong and Japan.
(People’s Daily 12/14/2000)
