国产热热热精品,亚洲视频久久】日韩,三级婷婷在线久久,99人妻精品视频,精品九热人人肉肉在线,AV东京热一区二区,91po在线视频观看,久久激情宗合,青青草黄色手机视频

Business / Green China

Shrinking wetlands highlight need for legal protection

(Xinhua) Updated: 2014-08-15 13:12

BEIJING - The battle for the country's wetlands rages in China as farmers eager to boost meager incomes butt heads with government initiatives to preserve biodiversity.

China's vast area of wetlands remain under constant threat from human activities. Despite their crucial role preserving water resources and biodiversity, they are often the first casualties of rapidly expanding cities and growing demands for agriculture.

In a tour to several wetlands in Northeast China's Heilongjiang province, Xinhua reporters found that although the government is increasing efforts to curb the degradation of wetlands, local residents are still attempting to convert them to agricultural lands as incomes remain low in the undeveloped region.

Shrinking wetlands highlight need for legal protection
Top 10 wetlands in China

Shrinking wetlands highlight need for legal protection
Shrinking of wetlands spurs call for regulation
 

"Local authorities are under heavy pressure to curb conversion of wetlands for other benefits," one official told Xinhua, asking to remain anonymous.

Data from the State Forestry Administration (SFA) revealed that China has a total of 53.6 million hectares of wetlands, making up more than 5 percent of the country's total terrain. In the past decade, 8.82 percent of wetlands have disappeared, converted to farmland or for infrastructure.

Sometimes referred to as the "Kidney of the Earth", wetlands play a crucial role in helping preserve and filter natural water resources while offering sanctuary for migrant birds and many other species.

A report in April showed nearly 60 percent of monitored areas in China had "very poor" or "relatively poor" underground water quality last year.

At a time when China faces looming pollution and water shortage problems, the government needs to put more focus on recovering wetlands, analysts said.

The problem, however, lies in how wetlands are classified.

According to Chinese law on land management, land is categorized as rural, up for development or unutilized. Unqualified for the former two categories, wetlands fall under the unutilized category allowing them to be misappropriated under "rightful exploration."

"Wetlands protection involves the interests of several departments, including forestry, agriculture and environment, so its difficult to enforce regulations," Yu Hongxian, from Northeast Forestry University, said.

In May 2013, the SFA implemented wetland protection regulations which would have banned the use of wetlands for other purposes. The 33-article document laid out detailed restrictions on issues such as overgrazing, misappropriation, introduction of alien species and misuse of wild fauna and flora.

However, the policy lacked specific consequences for violating the regulations and was not adopted by other departments which oversee wetland use, instead falling dead in the water.

The deadlock has prompted calls for a unified legal framework to preserve the irreplaceable ecosystem.

Ma Guangren, head of the wetlands protection and management center under the SFA, said the absence of a national protection law for wetlands is due to a lack of social awareness.

To better protect the wetlands, China needs to single them out as an independent category to specify regulation in the area, he advised.

Hot Topics

Editor's Picks
...
鱼台县| 京山县| 罗平县| 石嘴山市| 兰坪| 区。| 彭阳县| 巴马| 托克逊县| 英超| 彩票| 贡觉县| 攀枝花市| 屯昌县| 五莲县| 阿巴嘎旗| 长白| 宜良县| 安化县| 无锡市| 东乌| 北碚区| 荥阳市| 寿阳县| 永平县| 安福县| 唐海县| 益阳市| 观塘区| 招远市| 长阳| 公安县| 湘西| 龙海市| 静宁县| 金门县| 普安县| 东乌珠穆沁旗| 即墨市| 合阳县| 香河县|