An interview 20 years ago changed Liu Detian's life, turning him into a devoted bird protector.

"It was totally by chance that I got involved in environmental protection work," Liu calmly recalled in Shuangtaihekou National Nature Reserve in Panjin, Liaoning Province.

In the 1980s, George Archibald, former president of International Crane Foundation, came all the way from Canada to Panjin to carry out research on the bird. Liu, as a reporter from the local Panjin Daily, interviewed him.

"I was deeply touched by what Archibald had done," he said. In the following years, Liu filed many stories about the wetlands and its birds.

"Each animal or plant is one part of some network on earth. The uprooting of any part may mean we will suffer some imponderable loss.

"Moreover, Panjin is not only home to people, but also various other species. If we do not care, who will?" Liu said.

Early involvement

In 1990 some ornithologists from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) came to conduct research and announced that Panjin is the breeding habitat for the endangered Saunder's gull.

Liu reported the news.

It was said the rare gull was first found by a French missionary in Xiamen in east China's Fujian Province in 1871. Nothing was known about their breeding habitat, only that they wintered in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

After reporting the story the Saunder's gull found a special place in Liu's heart. He poured everything he had - time, money and enthusiasm - into the bird's welfare. Liu jokes he spent more time with birds than with his family.

"It is just like someone falling into water. We need somebody to shout for help. But a shout can not save a life. Somebody must jump into the water to help out."

He called upon the local government to ban hunting in the wetlands and wrote articles about how to help injured birds.

In order to better protect this endangered species, Liu set up a Saunder's gull protection association in 1991 and brought together a team of environmentalists from all walks of life.

At that time, a non-governmental organization was a fresh idea and it was difficult to raise money to support their activities. And few people could understand him.

"It was really hard at the very beginning due to the shortage of funds," he said.

At that time, Liu's annual income was around 12,000 yuan (US$1,451), some of which he had to pay for his two children's schooling.

"But I am lucky because I have an excellent wife who understands me and gives me every support," he said.

He used his own savings of 30,000 yuan (US$3,627) to establish the association.

The Saunder's gull is a migratory bird. Each year it flies across Japan, east China's Jiangsu Province and Hong Kong. Liu noted that it would be useless for him to devote his work entirely to Panjin, even though it is the bird's major breeding area.

He went to Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, which is also a breeding ground, to seek cooperation at his own expense.

And in 2001 environmentalists from China's Liaoning and Shandong provinces, South Korea and Japan set up an information network to monitor the Saunder's gull.

The more he is involved in protection work, the more he enjoys it.

"This is an exciting experience full of surprise, joy and even death," said Liu.

He still remembers one breathtaking experience around 2000 when he went to the wetlands in Panjin for research. The bumpy road was built on the rough dam inside the wetlands. The jeep suddenly drove into a roadside ditch full of water.

"We were lucky enough as the car only rolled two and half times. So we could escape in time. Only a half more circle, we would have all drowned," said Liu.

In 2002, Saunder's gull numbers in Panjin reached a record 5,020, which accounts for 75 percent of the world's total. That was a huge leap from the figure of 1,200 in 1990.

And Liu was awarded the sixth Ford Environmental Protection Prize for his excellent work in the protection of wildlife in 2002.

He put the 30,000 yuan (US$3,627) prize money into running his association.

Apart from the Saunder's gull, there are 11 endangered species, such as the red-crowned crane and white crane, in the reserve.

With the rapid development of the city of Panjin, the population has been boomed in recent years. The local government has to expand paddies at the expense of the wetlands. And about 1.2 million mu (80,000 hectares) of wetland has been turned into farmland.

Moreover, Li Yuxiang, vice-chief from the local Shuangtaihekou Nature Reserve, said they had found over 1,000 oil wells scattered around wetlands through satellite remote sensing.

The wells take up space in the wetlands not only through the platforms on which they stand but also the transportation network needed to link them to processing workshops.

All this has carved up the wetlands. Experts believe the ecosystem may change because the roads will block water flow and thus affect the wildlife. Furthermore, the run off from the wells also contaminates the water and soil, which negatively impacts on local flora and fauna.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the wetlands natural vegetation was being destroyed so fast that conservationists feared all would be lost in the near future.

"It is very strange to walk inside the reserve because to the left of the road are the barren paddy fields while to the right are the vast wonderful reed marshes," said Li Dongping, a local environmental volunteer. "Just the spoiling of natural scenery is a great loss besides the potential eco-disaster."

Liu and his colleagues have contacted the Liaohe Oil Field and carried out routine checks to prevent any potential crude oil leakage.

But rice paddies cannot survive in the harsh environment in which reeds thrive and after years of poor harvests, the local government has turned paddy fields into crab ponds.

This further worsened the living conditions of wildlife, especially for birds as local farmers channel seawater into the land to raise crab and shrimp. This has resulted in many fledglings drowning, said Li Yuxiang.

All this has cast a heavy shadow on the wildlife of the wetlands. Research conducted last year showed the number of black-beaked gulls had plummeted nearly 50 percent to 2,930 from a year earlier. This is also backed by statistics from the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Centre which showed Panjin's wetlands decreased by 60 percent to 240,000 hectares from 1987 to 2002.

These problems reflect the increasing conflict between wetland preservation and local economic development.

However, statistics from the State Forestry Bureau also show the rapid increase of nature reserves around the country. There were only 34 nature reserves until 1978, but this number ballooned to 1,999 by the end of 2003.

"What I want to do is show people we can save the birds and enjoy the same home as them," said Liu Detian. He said what made him positive about the future is that local people, especially the young, are starting to accept the idea of wildlife protection and have begun actively taking part in such activities.

(China Daily December 30, 2004)