Pictures: China's Wetland Revolution

Xixi's Children

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

Two young children take cover in Xixi National Wetland Park in Hangzhou, near Shanghai. The park is one of more than 100 national wetland parks approved by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) since 2005 and serves as a leisure and education center for thousands of tourists who visit each day. Since its opening, the number of bird species in the Xixi region is reported to have increased from 89 to 128. In 1992 China signed on to the Ramsar Convention, an international treaty to plan for the "wise use," or sustainable use, of all wetlands.

According to SFA, the government has invested 1.1 billion yuan ($16.11 million) in wetland protection projects since 2006. But recently some experts have expressed concern about mixing wetlands with tourism in parks like Xixi. A recent study by a professor at Central South Forestry University found that 8,000 visitors who enter the park each day in peak season may be negatively impacting the ecosystem. Earlier this year, the forestry administration called for strict separation between wetlands protection, restoration, and ecotourism.

(Read related news: "China Takes Another Stab at Resettlement With $62 Billion Water Plan.")

Published April 26, 2011

Sichuan Irrigation

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

A man walks through an irrigation channel in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province. A World Heritage site, the 2,000-year-old Daoist irrigation system here siphons off excess water during the summer flooding season and redirects the excess water to farmland in the region. By channeling water from the Min River during times of flood, the irrigation system protects the local area from becoming innundated and provides water to the Chengdu basin, an area of rich farmland and intense agricultural productivity. Today the system is testament to the sustainable management of water and wetlands.

(See more photos of World Heritage sites.)

A few miles upstream is a more modern example of Chinese water engineering: the Zipingpu Dam.  It holds back 315 million tons of water, and is one of the growing army of controversial dams in China that harness the power of the country's rivers. In 2008 the devastating Sichuan earthquake struck just a few kilometers from Zipingpu, wiping out 80 percent of the buildings in Dujiangyan alone and killing over 80,000 people in the immediate area. Seismologists had warned that the dam should not be built because of its proximity to a major fault line. Reports following the quake stated that "extremely dangerous cracks" had emerged. Reservoir-induced seismicity remains a controversial topic in China.

(Related news: "China Earthquake Today: The Aftermath in Pictures" and "Pictures: Huge Jets Shoot From Dam During China Floods," about the Three Gorges Dam)

(See more pictures of monumental water infrastructure.)

Published April 26, 2011

Fish Food

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

A dead fish lies on the South China Sea shore in Guangdong Province. Water pollution is prevalent in the majority of China's waterways and in many cases threatens the health of humans and wildlife. This pollution comes from agricultural runoff, industrial wastewater, soil erosion, and livestock production, among other things. Pollution from livestock production has been a major cause of massive algae blooms in the South China Sea, including one in 1998 that killed more than 80 percent of the fish in 39 square miles (100 square kilometers) along Guangdong's coast, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization.

Guangdong is one of China's biggest pig-producing provinces, and much of the nutrient pollution that has hit the coast is manure runoff from pig farms. When manure runs off into rivers and streams that eventually reach the ocean, the nitrogen and phosphorous in it uses up the oxygen in the water, causing eutrophication, or a dead zone, where no few fish and other aquatic species can live. Some experts say that as livestock production intensifies and small farms are converted to medium- and large-scale farms to feed voracious urban consumers, pollution will be easier to control. But others are concerned that pollution risks remain equal or become greater with bigger livestock operations.

(See "Photos: Algae Blankets China Beaches; Dead Zone Brewing?")

Published April 26, 2011

Fish Traders

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

Fish traders sell fresh catch in Yueyang town, which lies on the shores of Dongting Lake, China's second largest freshwater lake. Overfishing and silting in the lake has reached such a high level that fish have to be imported from other lakes in China to feed much of the burgeoning demand from consumers. Though seasonal flooding for nearly a century has meant that the lake's size fluctuates throughout the year, it now experiences more radical shifts in size as it seesaws between flooding and drought.

Changing rainfall patterns combined with increased riverbank development and erosion have shrunk the 1,089-square-mile (2,820-square-kilometer) lake into three separate basins that become one in the rainy season, according to the Japanese-based International Lake Environment Committee Foundation. Overfishing has also caused many fisherman to abandon their traditional source of income for jobs on one of the more than 300 passing ships, some of which dredge sand from the bottom of the lake to keep the lake passable. Government-sponsored programs have also recently encouraged fishermen to leave the water and seek land-based jobs in an effort to reduce the pressure on fish resources.

Published April 26, 2011

Qinghai Lake

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

The massive Qinghai Lake, China's largest inland and saltwater lake, sits 10,500 feet (3,200 meters) above sea level on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in the northwest.

Over the past 100 years, the lake, which is considered sacred by Qinghai Tibetans, has been disappearing before their eyes. Since 1980 water levels have dropped almost 13 feet (4 meters) and an area half the size of Singapore has been turned into dry land, according to Chinese state media. Scientists say climate change, misuse of water, and desertification are all contributing to its decline.

Not only is habitat at risk of disappearing, but also valuable water storage. "The Chinese wetlands, like the marshes with peat soils of the Himalaya region, are not only just important for nature, but also crucial for storing massive amounts of water," says Chen Kelin, director of Wetlands International's China office.

Climate change has altered rainfall patterns in the region, reducing the flow from streams and rivers that feed the lake. And the surrounding land is transforming into desert as the grasslands are overgrazed by livestock. Three islands on the lake serve as an important migratory stop-off point for birds in central Asia, some of which, like the black-necked crane, are endangered. The lake has become a prime tourist destination, welcoming thousands of visitors every day, many of whom are unaware of its precarious status.

(See another lake in danger of drying up: "PHOTOS: Dried-up Aral Sea Aftermath.")

Published April 26, 2011

Mangroves

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

Increasingly, mangrove forests along China's coasts are coming under threat from new developments and aquaculture. There are 24 recorded species of mangrove trees found on the Leizhou Peninsula in southern Guangdong province, and approximately 23,000 acres (9,300 hectares) of actual mangrove forest scattered along various isolated stretches of coastline. The establishment of the Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve, pictured above, in 1997 was the first big step to reversing the degradation of mangroves in Leizhou.

According to a report from the Mangrove Action Project (MAP), the government began establishing mangrove nurseries and encouraging small-scale replanting efforts in 2001. But the initiative included planting non-native mangrove species, mainly in key mudflat zones, MAP noted. Foresters predict that these trees may not survive the next major typhoon; shorter native mangrove species are better adapted to strong winds, the project says.

Published April 26, 2011

Boy by Flooded Dongting Lake

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

As Dongting Lake slowly fills with nutrients and sediment, conservationists and scientists are trying to keep soil and sand from entering the lake by restoring vegetation along the rivers that feed it. This strategy should also help the lake maintain its natural ability to mitigate flooding.

Another wetland in the Central Yangtze region, called Poyang Lake, is a similarly critical and vibrant ecosystem under threat. Both lakes contain habitat for about 300 species of bird, including endangered migrants like cranes and storks, as well as fish, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles.

Several NGOs, including the international group WWF, are restoring these two lake wetlands by removing dikes and protecting the lake bed and banks from development by establishing nature reserves. WWF is also developing 11 additional nature reserves around Dongting and other at-risk wetlands along the Central Yangtze River. Ecotourism around China's lakes has also emerged as a way to encourage community participation in and ownership of conservation goals. Local fishermen are beginning to work with the nature reserve to develop a co-management plan.

Published April 26, 2011

Chinese Alligators

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

Wetland disappearance in China has affected dozens of animal species, including the Yangtze alligator of Anhui province, which inhabits the Yangtze River Basin west of Shanghai and is in danger of extinction, scientists say. Between the 1950s and 1980s, the population of Anhui exploded; many alligators were considered pests and killed off. Today it is estimated that only 120 are left in the wild. "The loss of habitat is by far the most serious factors in the decline in the wild population of Yangtze alligators," says Joe Abene, a long-time alligator researcher who worked for the Bronx Zoo in New York and is an expert on the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis).

"Since the Chinese government has given the Yangtze alligators the highest level of protection, their biggest obstacle has been finding a place to live." At the Anhui Research Center of Alligator Reproduction in the city of Xuancheng, researchers have several ponds housing some 10,000 captive bred Chinese alligators, some of which are introduced into the wild. As scientists work on jump-starting the population through breeding programs, the biggest challenge for the Chinese government will be to set aside enough habitat to sustain a large viable population of Yangtze alligators without harming the livelihoods of the farmers that currently share the river basin with them.

(Related news: "Chinese Alligators Reintroduced from U.S. Are Breeding on Yangtze River Island)

(See more photos of aquatic species.)

(Read more about the Chinese alligator in Gallagher's Nat Geo NewsWatch blog post: "The Chinese Alligator, A Species On The Brink.")

Published April 26, 2011

Dongting Lake

Photograph by Sean Gallagher

A woman holds her child in the town of Yueyang, on the shores of Dongting Lake in Hunan province. Though the area of the lake has dropped by nearly 50 percent in the past 70 years, flooding in the summer of 2010 forced local residents who live along the banks to flee their homes.

Historically, Dongting Lake has been a critical buffer for the region, absorbing overflow from the Yangtze River and protecting communities downstream. The cause of the lake's current decline? Silting from a variety of human activities including dredging and boating. "The silted mud becomes new land, which becomes islands and beaches which people then live on," says Jiang Yong, an ecologist and the vice director of the East Dongting Nature Reserve who has spent 18 years studying the lake.

Published April 26, 2011