A shared future coalition on the hydric soil

With the prevention and control of the novel coronavirus entering its critical stage, scientists call for a refocus on how people and nature should get along.

The seventh World Wildlife Day on March 3 this year takes on the subject of wildlife preservation and biodiversity. As one of the most important habitats for wildlife, wetland sustains a paradigm of the ecosystem that is closely related to human survival and development.

Harmony between man and nature means all human activities must be based on the respect of natural law.

A transitional type of ecosystem like the wetlands features regional differences in terms of its hydrological, geochemical and nutrient cycling processes, which it in turn measures up to the environmental requirement of a variety of animal and plant groups.

More than 40 percent of the world's species rely on wetlands to thrive, and it is crowned as the "biological paradise" and "species gene bank".

Statistics from the second national wetland resource survey reveals about 200 families, 692 genera, and 2315 species of plants grow in wetlands, accounting for half of the national total.

Wetlands serve as the breeding and wintering grounds for migratory birds. Coastal tidelands in Yantu, Jiangsu province is the world's largest wintering habitat for red-crowned cranes.

Wetlands are a natural barrier against disasters. Rich in high organic substance, wetlands absorb water like a sponge, and they store up excess water during the flood season and release it in the dry season, an effective mitigation mechanism that helps reduce floods or drought caused by uneven distribution of water resources. Salt marshes and mangroves can resist the damage from sea waves, storms and tsunamis.

Large-scale lake reclamation was conducted to meet food and flood control needs since the 1950s. Statistics from the 2010 National Comprehensive Water Resources Plan shows that in more than half a century since 1950, of the 635 lakes with an area of more than 1,000 hectares, 231 have shrunk in varying degrees.

Deterioration is found especially in coastal wetlands, where port construction, aquaculture and salt field development have caused a more drastic shrink. According to the 2012 special offshore marine survey, compared with the 1950s, China has lost 57 percent of its coastal wetlands: mangroves have decreased by 73 percent, and coral reef areas 80 percent. Water conservancy projects have changed the hydrological conditions of rivers, blocked migration pathways for aquatic life, and increased the risk of extinction for migratory fish and finless porpoises.

A survey from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration confirms that pollution has become the most serious threat to wetlands. China's lakes, rivers and wetlands are generally polluted by nitrogen, phosphorus, organic matter and heavy metals. Of the 107 lakes monitored in the 2018 Government Bulletin of Ecological Environment, 31 lakes are in different levels of eutrophication, accounting for 29 percent of the monitored.

China has adopted active wetland protection measures in response to the degradation. The Wetland Protection and Restoration System Program (2016) issued by the General Office of the State Council lists wetlands that should be no less than 53 million hectares across the nation as one of the main goals and tasks of ecological civilization by 2020.

The program, a top-level design and overall layout, marks China's determination in comprehensive protection of wetlands. At present, 28 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have promulgated provincial wetland protection laws, and their protection efforts have been included in the green development index system, an indicator for the central government's annual evaluation of the local governments' green development results.

Building a community of shared fate for the protection of wetlands cannot be achieved without global cooperation. In order to protect these transnational migratory birds, the Chinese government has signed Sino-Japanese and Sino-Australian migratory bird protection agreements. China will continue to conduct extensive exchanges and cooperation with the international community, and work together to safeguard global wetlands.