Boon for wetland ecology as local attitudes evolve
Print Edition
A FAILED project to convert swathes of north China’s swampland into farms in the 1970s has proved a boon for one of China’s faltering bird species.
Vast expanses of wetlands in Xinqing District of Yichun City in northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province, once marked for development into agriculture, remain one of the most important habitats for hooded cranes in the country.
With less than 10,000 of the rare cranes left, they are listed as vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list.
The marshlands of Heilongjiang have provided a crucial winter haven for the bird’s gradual recovery, according to Liu Baocai, director of the Xinqing Hooded Crane National Nature Reserve Management Bureau.
“We feel very lucky. If the wetlands were converted into agriculture, it would no longer be home to the birds,” he said.
In the past decade, 8.82 percent of wetlands have disappeared, converted to farmland or infrastructure.
Wetland protection has become the mainstream view among locals in Heilongjiang. The push by residents has spurred the local government’s efforts towards ecological protection through a ban on logging, fishing, and closure of surrounding factories.
The efforts have demonstrated the people’s changing attitude toward wetlands, Liu said.
Sometimes referred to as the “Kidneys of the Earth,” wetlands play a crucial role in helping preserve and filter natural water resources while offering a sanctuary for migrating birds and many other species.
The shift in attitude is a far cry from the local outlook 40 years ago. In the 1960s, locals thought the wetlands were useless, draining them to grow crops. Farm yields were low and the practice was eventually abandoned, but not before inflicting huge damage to the wetland ecology.
Also home to the world’s largest virgin forest of red pines, forestry was once a pillar of the local economy, acting as a main source of revenue and employment. In order to maximize lumber output, locals again turned to the wetlands in the 1990s, this time to grow pine trees in the wetlands.
Once more they ended in failure. The trees could not root properly and were easily toppled by strong winds.
The consequences of both failed attempts to industrialize the wetlands can still be seen today through regional desertification, frequent flooding, droughts, and forest fires.
“It was foolish from today’s perspective. However, people had no choice then but to exploit the wetlands for subsistence,” said Zhuo Lei of the Meixi Forestry Bureau of Yichun.
Data from the State Forestry Administration reveals China has a total of 53.6 million hectares of wetlands, accounting for more than 5 percent of the country’s total terrain.
But protection efforts are facing renewed challenges, however, as locals, seeing rising incomes in the rest of the country, seek to cultivate the wetlands once more.
Local officials say there has been a recent rise in complaints lodged against the protection campaigns from local residents, who claim they are being forced to change old lifestyles.
Reasonable remunerations for those affected by the protection campaigns are necessary. However, such a scheme has not yet been established.
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