China -- wetlands protection

[TJ]

This development may be some cause for hope, though I know some harbor doubts (count myself among them).

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China injects 9 billion yuan to protect wetland in coming five years
BEIJING, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will invest a total of 9 billion yuan (1.125 billion U.S. dollars) into the protection of its shrinking area of wetland from 2006 to 2010, announced the State Forestry Administration here Wednesday.
The State Council has earlier approved a special national implementation program to that effect, which signals the official start of China's wetland protection projects, said Cao Qingyao, spokesman of the administration.
The fund will be used to initiate four key projects in the aspects of protection, restoration, sustainable use demonstration and capacity construction of the wetland, he said.
Cao said China will manage to offer effective protection for half of the natural wetland areas and 70 percent of the important ones in China by 2010 and basically form a protection system.
According to SFA statistics in 2004, China had a total of 38.48 million hectares of wetland, calculating only those with areas exceeding 100 hectares.
The figures include 36.2 million hectares of natural wetlands and 2.28 million artificially formed ones.
To date, China has established 473 wetland protection areas, which have helped protect 45 percent of the country's natural wetland.

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(Message edited by TJ on February 10, 2006)

 

[hayden]

Sounds like good news. Is this focused at any animals or wetland areas in particular?

 

[sergé]

In respect to the area's destroyed due to building dams (and as a result destruction of the complete river system and migrations routes for fish), the growing economic development without any rules for all waste products and the strange view on conservation and protection of species (terrapins; eat them all before they are gone!) I think this is just a way of dressing up. First see, than believe ;-)

 

[foster]

I agree with you completely Serge. I remember reading something a while back (sorry but I cannot remember the source) about an increased number of US turtles being exported to China in order to meet the food/herbal medicine demand.
Chip