Experts with the Wetland Research Center of the Chinese Academy
of Sciences and other wetland institutes are finding that beginning
in 2003 many more people have come to them for help and significant
numbers are from
Jiangsu,
Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai.
It seems there’s a “wetland fever” prevailing in the Yangtze
River Delta, reported the People’s Daily Overseas Edition on
April 25. Statistics show there are altogether 16 wetland parks
with a total acreage of 200 sq km now either under construction or
at the planning stage. The overall national figure for land of this
type is 51.
On the list of the National City Wetland Parks (9) published by
the Ministry of Construction last year one third are located in the
Yangtze River Delta -- Wuxi and Changshu in Jiangsu Province and
Shaoxing in Zhejiang Province.
Cixi City in Zhejiang plans to build a wetland reserve on the
southern bank of Hangzhou Bay to the west of Hangzhou Bay Bridge.
The reserve, designed to cover 45 sq km, will be the biggest in the
delta and will be complete at the same time as the Hangzhou Bay
Bridge project in 2008.
Experts concerned have described all this activity as “wetland
fever” and using the phrase “bring the dead back to life” to
explain their views.
The Shanghu wetland in Jiangsu’s Changshu City is a typical
example. The city, rich in water resources, reclaimed land from the
Shanghu Lake to plant low-yield rice in the 1960s. In the 80s local
people realized the negative effects of their activities and
started to convert the reclaimed land back to its original
state.
Local government invested some 300 million yuan (US$36 million)
in various lake projects over the past few years. Now the 20-sq-km
Shanghu wetland has become a bio-diversity breeding area, and a
part of it has been developed into a scenic attraction. ?
Similar stories have happened all around the country. By the
mid-1980s half the beaches and nearly 1,000 natural lakes had
disappeared. Many wetlands were replaced by roads and buildings. In
1992, China joined the Convention on Wetland or the Ramsar
Convention, an intergovernmental treaty which provides the
framework for national action and international cooperation for the
conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. So far
China has established 353 wetland reserves. New life had been
breathed into many threatened areas of wetland like the Shanghu
Lake in Changshu.
One expert on regional environmental protection feels the
“fever” to reclaim wetland is of considerable significance in the
urban development process, representing a change in people’s
concept of urban development.
Lu Jianjian, a professor from the East China Normal University
and also a nationally renowned wetland expert, said wetlands are
not buildings which would depreciate. On the contrary their value
will rise with the time.
Out of the 17 identified wetland values, their ability to assist
in pollution abatement should be given the top priority, said the
professor. Yangtze River Delta is a relatively developed industrial
area. Pollution control is therefore a long-term issue. At least 60
percent of the ecological value of the wetlands in this region
should be gauged through arresting pollution, said Prof Lu.
However, reducing pollution had not been set as the objective in
many wetland projects. Even among the completed wetland projects in
the Yangtze River Delta none could actually act as the city’s
“kidney”.
Active efforts are being made to improve things. A project under
the “World Bank – Global Environmental Fund East Asian Ocean
Cooperation Plan” scheme in the Hangzhou Bay in Cixi, Zhejiang
Province, has clearly identified pollution reduction in the coastal
region as the wetland’s primary function. This move was recognized
by the East Asian Marine Pollution Reduction Investment Fund.
They’ve made a decision to put the Cixi project top on the list of
projects it’ll support in the world with a donation of US$5
million.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, May 1, 2006)