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Residents to be relocated from wetland
By Li Fangchao (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-31 05:17
HARBIN: In an effort to rescue the fast shrinking and deteriorating Zhalong
Wetland, 5,400 people who live in the main area of the wetland are to be
relocated by the year 2010, sources with the Heilongjiang Provincial Forestry
Department said.
Zhalong Wetland, in Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, is the largest
of its type in the country and home to hundreds of endangered species of fauna
and flora.
Around 500 species of plants and 300 species of waterfowl can be found in the
reserve. It is particularly noted for the rare red-crowned crane.
"The activities of local residents have disturbed the environment since they
first moved onto this land in the 1950s," Li Changyou, director of the reserve,
told China Daily.
At present, there are 13 villages with 1,200 households and a population of
about 5,400 people living in the main area of the wetland, which is about 700
square kilometres in size.
"Where men advance, cranes retreat," Li said.
He added that the majority of the small islands where crane nests are now
used by people, and fertilizers and pesticides contaminate the water.
Fishing also takes food from the cranes and each year harvesting wetland
reeds leaves the cranes with nowhere to hide.
And the worst danger is the occasional fire caused by carelessness, which
sometimes destroys huge areas of reeds.
Compared with the 1960s or 1970s, biological diversity in the wetland has
declined by 70 per cent, with birds losing 40 per cent of their habitats, Li
estimates.
"The 700-square-kilometre main area is the essence of the wetland and we
don't want to see it die out within a few years," he said.
"The relocation plan has already been approved by the National Development
and Reform Commission and is listed as one of the goals of China's 11th
Five-Year Plan (2006-10)," Tao Jin, an official from the provincial forestry
department told China Daily.
The detailed relocation plan and the sum of money being offered as
compensation to the residents are still under discussion, he said.
And this is the main point of contention between the residents and the
government.
Residents say they are willing to leave the area as it has few facilities and
work is scarce, but they are not satisfied with the compensation being offered
by the government.
They say they might even refuse to leave the area if the local authorities do
not increase the 10,000 yuan per household that has so far been offered as
compensation.
Yang Shenghua, the head of one village, said: "Most people are willing to be
relocated, but they are not satisfied with the money."
The area has poor transport links and no electricity, and people earn money
by harvesting wetland reeds, and a little farming and fishing.
But as Yang said: "There are more fishermen than fish."
Li Changyou estimated that it would be an arduous job to relocate these
people, and it will take some time for the wetland to get back to how it was
before.
"Anyway, it is a good sign that people are beginning to pay attention to this
problem," he said.
Set up in 1979, Zhalong Wetland is one of the seven wetlands in China that
have been put onto the list of Wetlands of International Importance.
It is estimated that there are altogether 2,000 red-crowned cranes in the
world. More than 400 live in Zhalong. They are under the country's top-level
protection.
(China Daily 10/31/2005 page3)
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