The Zhalong State Nature Reserve in northeast China, the nation's largest for red-crowned cranes, has demarcated clearly its borders for better and stricter protection.
Set up in 1979, the zone did not make clear border lines until recently. Administration over the reserve was sabotaged by human activities for there were no officially declared borders, a senior official said.
The demarcation put 210,000 hectares of wetland under protection, of which 73,000 hectares providing habitats for rare waterfowls including cranes.
Experts suggested local residents be moved out of the reserve so as to restore its original environment.
The reserve is one of the country's seven wetlands listed on the World's Important Wetlands. The number of red-crowned cranes living there account for one sixth of the world's red-crowned crane population.
(Xinhua News Agency 06/29/2001)
