An ambitious wetlands-protection project is to be launched this
year in southwest China's Sichuan Province with the coordinated efforts
of the provincial forestry, land and water resources
departments.
The project, which will run for 24 years, will involve an
investment of some 1.5 billion yuan (US$195 million) to protect all
the wetlands in the province, which cover more than 4.2 million
hectares.
Tang Daixu, head of the wild animal and plant protection section
of the Sichuan provincial department of forestry, said the focus of
the project will be the Ruo'ergai Wetland Nature Reserve where
efforts will be made to alleviate the threats to the Yellow River
caused by wetland deterioration.
Covering nearly 16,671 hectares, the Ruo'ergai Nature Reserve in
Ruo'ergai County, in the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous
Prefecture in Sichuan, is one of the world's largest alpine
wetlands.
Ruo'ergai wetland (file
photo)
Located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River in the eastern
part of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, it is known as the "Reservoir of
the Yellow River" as it is the source of 30 percent of the
waterway's supply.
One of the world's most important areas in terms of
biodiversity, it has 207 species of plants and 218 species of
vertebrates and is a major habitat for endangered species such as
the black-necked crane and white-tailed sea eagle.
However, over the past 15 years, its area has been reduced by
nearly 40 percent due to global warming, reduced rainfall and human
activities. This shrinking has led to changes in the animal and
plant species unique to it and the future of the reserve is under
threat.
Luobuza, a Tibetan who was born and grew up in the reserve,
said: "There are now very few swamps in the reserve. I could ride
my horse for 50 km and not find one."
Zake, who heads the reserve's administrative bureau, said that a
large number of rivers and lakes have either shrunk or completely
dried up in the reserve.
The Xingcuo Lake, for example, used to cover 469 hectares; now
it covers less than 10. Its dry bed is a new source of
desertification and a threat to surrounding meadows, he said.
He Biao, secretary-general of the Aba Tibetan and Qiang
Autonomous Prefecture government, said that desertification of
Ruo'ergai was progressing at an annual rate of nearly 12
percent.
Professor Liang Yuxiang of Sichuan University, who led a recent
investigation by scientists and journalists in the region, said
that some 61,913 hectares, about 7.6 percent of its exploitable
grassland, in the reserve were suffering from desertification. A
further 135,333 hectares of land were under threat of
desertification.
The new wetland-protection project will this year seek to
control desertification in an area of 67 hectares and build an
additional 900 sq m of bird ambulance stations.
Sichuan currently has 35 wetland nature reserves. It plans to
build 19 more and establish nine wetland monitoring stations.
(China Daily May 9, 2007)
