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Country Water Action: People's Republic of China
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Five decades of agricultural expansion have imperiled the rich biodiversity of the vast Sanjiang Plain in the northeast People’s Republic of China (PRC). Just one fifth remains of original forest and wetland cover.
Its conservation will soon take a big step forward, however, under the proposed $54 million Sanjiang Plain Wetlands Protection Project. This is the first Asian Development Bank (ADB) loan to a developing member country for the restoration of wetlands. The project is subject to the approval of ADB’s Board of Directors.
“The PRC Government’s commitment to this project sends a strong signal to the region to recognize the importance of investing in watershed and wetlands protection,” says Wouter Lincklaen Arriens, ADB Lead Water Resources Specialist.
Under close cooperation between the Government and ADB, the project will directly address the root causes of the problem rather than only the consequences.
ADB’s water policy promotes wetland conservation and improvement as an integral part of water resource management. Wetlands help alleviate floods, recharge groundwater, improve water quality, maintain ecosystems, and conserve biodiversity.
The project will adopt an integrated watershed and wetland management approach, while the economic development of selected wetland and forest areas will help meet the economic needs of area residents.
“The project will be a model that serves both environmental protection and economic development objectives. The Heilongjiang provincial government has shown strong leadership in adopting such an integrated approach to wetlands protection,” says KyongAe Choe, ADB Senior Natural Resources Management Specialist in charge of the project.
Covering 108,900 square kilometers in Heilongjang Province, an area bigger than the Republic of Korea, a large part of the Sanjiang Plain has been turned to grain production.
Its problems are the result of intricately related economic interests competing for use of scarce natural resources, such as water, forest, and wetlands.
Area residents have drained wetlands to expand farmland, cut down forests, and channeled floodwaters, all contributing to hydrologic and climatic changes. Immense networks of drainage channels, pumping stations, and flood control dykes have altered the cycle of entire watersheds and destroyed millions of hectares of natural marshes and wet meadows, according to a project summary. They have threatened biodiversity and increased the risk of damage from severe floods and frequent droughts.
Yet animal and plant life could soon be on a more sustainable path under the proposed project, financed jointly by ADB, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), and the PRC Government.
Some 2,400 plant and animal species live on Sanjiang, among them 23 animal species listed by IUCN-The World Conservation Union as globally threatened. The wetlands are an important nesting and stopover on the northern end of the East-Asian-Australian flyway for migratory birds.
The project is aimed at the ‘sustainable management of natural resources to protect globally significant biodiversity and promote economic development.’ Specifically, it will deal with four main threats to the plain. These include changes in hydrology and dessication; the conversion of wetland to farmland; the inappropriate use of resources; and a limited capacity for conservation on nature reserves.
The project is comprised of closely interlinked measures to remove these threats. Among them, it will increase forest cover in upper watershed areas and improve water resources planning and management.
It will restore 3,433 hectares of wetlands and repopulate wetland natural reserves with globally threatened wildlife species. Six key nature reserves in 13 counties (out of 18 counties on the plain) will directly benefit from habitat and wildlife protection.
By developing and testing a model framework to protect wetland biodiversity while promoting the sustainable development of the areas, the project is expected to lead to a much larger farmland-to-wetland restoration program.
To discourage inappropriate use of resources, the project will help diversify income sources for poor farm households through intercropping, non-timber forest production, and ecotourism. Village development plans, using a consultative and participatory approach, will help farmers restore alternative livelihoods.
The project will also strengthen the capacity of local agencies in charge of watershed and wetland management and of the nature reserves. Revenues from forest yields will be used to help cover the operation and maintenance costs of the reserves.
Unlike other wetland conservation efforts in the PRC, the Sanjiang Plain Wetlands Protection Project promotes close linkage of watershed management with the management of wetland nature reserves and directly addresses the needs of the plain’s local residents.
“Biodiversity conservation and protection of the wetlands will not be sustained without considering its economic impact, and without active participation and commitment from the communities affected,” says Ms. Choe. The project will, therefore, draw on community practices in watershed, wetland, and wildlife conservation.
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