STUDY ON WETLAND LOSS AND ITS REASONS IN CHINA

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Study on wetland loss and its reasons in China

Wetlands are ecosystems with many f unctions.But the general public and government lack a comprehen-sive understanding of the importance of wetland benefits,thus making bl indly exploitation,wetland resour ces decreasing and losing biodiversity.So wetlands in China,as in most countries,have suffered heavily from the pressure o f develop-ment and have confronted with the thr eats of loss.The paper takes Sanjian g Plain marshes,lakes in the middle r eaches of the Changjiang(Yangtze)River,coastal wetlands and mangroves as cases to study wetland loss in China,and puts forward main existing reasons of wetland loss,such as blindly reclamati on and exploitation of wetland resou rces,over-exploitation of bio-resource s in wetland,etc.More recently,there has been a growing recognition of t he benefits of wetlands and a wide range of legal and regulatory initiatives have been undertaken which are designed to impro ve wetland management and conservation.On the basis of the above analysis,the paper brings forward some suggestions on wetland conservation.