Translate page with Google

Story April 27, 2011

China's Wetland Revolution

Country:

China

Author:

Sean Gallagher
Grantee

English

China has more wetlands than any country in Asia, and 10 percent of the global total. They are...

Sean Gallagher
Grantee

READ MORE ABOUT THIS PROJECT

SECTIONS

A farmer works in the rice fields on the Leizhou Peninsula in Guangdong Province in southern China. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

Two young children take cover in Xixi National Wetland Park in Hangzhou, near Shanghai. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

A man walks through an irrigation channel in Dujiangyan, Sichuan Province. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

A dead fish lies on the South China Sea shore in Guangdong Province. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

Fish traders sell fresh catch in Yueyang town, which lies on the shores of Dongting Lake, China's second largest freshwater lake. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

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. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

The Zhanjiang Mangrove National Nature Reserve. Increasingly, mangrove forests along China's coasts are coming under threat from new developments and aquaculture. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

A boy stands by a flooded Dongting Lake. 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. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

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. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

A woman holds her child in the town of Yueyang, on the shores of Dongting Lake in Hunan province. Image by Sean Gallagher, China, 2010.

China's wetlands cover approximately 65 million hectares, ranking first in Asia and representing ten percent of the world's total wetlands. These important waters are quickly disappearing.

A crisis is occurring as large parts of China's wetlands have now disappeared, as a result of both climate change and China's rapid economic growth.