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Beijing has managed to restore 5,600 hectares of wetlands after starting its protection effort in the last few years, and held its first wetlands protection meeting, on Aug 29, where it was decided that the Landscape and Forestry Bureau will define the wetlands and report the results to increase awareness of the need for wetlands protections.
There have been laws and regulations on wetland conservation applied since May 1, this year. Two previous rulings went into effect in 2005 and 2011 and in 2007, the bureau began a systematic study of the wetland resources -- their type, area, and animals -- to draw up a proper map and build a data base.
In addition to the laws and regulations and the survey, the city has been trying to restore its wetlands and has built suburban parks, such as Sanhaizi Park, with its 150 hectares of wetlands, with reeds and lotuses and other plants that attract animals.
In all, 11 riverside forest parks were established on 7,133 hectares of land with 1,300 hectares given over to wetlands, one example of which is the Tongzhou Riverside Forest Park, which has 147 hectares of reclaimed wetlands.
Since 2012, around 1,400 hectares of wetlands have been reclaimed or newly added in the Tongzhou, Shunyi and Daxing districts, while water control projects for the Beiyun and Yongding rivers have also helped, by restoring 10 marshlands, such as the one at Green Lake Wetland Park and the Xiyu River, on a 600–hectare space in all.
Another marshland project, the Hanshiqiao Nature Reserve, has resulted in Beijing’s only large reed-growing swamp and rare waterfowl habitat being given the protection it needs.
Wetlands are an essential part of an urban ecological system, intended to preserve plants and animals, as well as water, and to help control droughts and regional weather changes, key for continued development. Research shows that the effect of wetlands on the ecology can be eight to 10 times greater than that of a forest the same size.
Beijing now has 51,400 hectares of wetlands, accounting for 3.13 percent of its total area, with 23,800 hectares of rivers and marshland, which are natural, at 46.4 percent of the total, while the remaining 27,600 hectares are in reservoirs, pools, irrigation canals, and paddies, or the so-called artificial wetlands.
