China has given the green light to an overall program to protect the ecosystem in the areas cradling the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang-Mekong rivers.

The long-awaited program has passed the examination of the State Council, China's cabinet, but official approval will be needed for it to take full effect, according to an official who declined to be named.

Heavy investment will be poured into a State natural reserve covering 152,300 square kilometers of land or over 40 percent of the total fountainhead area of the three major rivers for rehabilitating its fragile ecosystems.

The Yangtze and Yellow rivers are the two largest in China while the Lancang-Mekong River flows to the South China Sea through Viet Nam.

Officials and experts were confident that, by 2010, worsening ecosystems will be turned into a positive cycle and begin rehabilitation with the help of the program through controlling degradation of pastures and desertification.

"The move is of vital to the national protection of wetlands as the headwaters of the three major rivers is China's largest wetland with multiple natural functions," Zhou Shengxian, top official of the State Forestry Administration (SFA), said.

The protection of wetland ecosystems will help China maintain sustainable development in following years, he said yesterday in Beijing at a gathering celebrating this year's World Wetland Day (WWD).

The cradle land, located in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at an average altitude of 4,000 meters above sea level, covers an area of 363,000 square kilometers in the southern part of northwestern Qinghai Province, which is home to 16 counties and Tanggula township under three Tibetan autonomous prefectures.

The crisscrossing of rivers and lakes, along with ice-capped mountains and glaciers, have earned the cradle land the reputation of "kidney of the earth" for its great capacity to retain water resources, resist flooding and dry spells, relieve pollution, and keep biodiversity in existence.

However, global warming, growing population and excessive human activities have resulted in water erosion and shrinkage in grassland and biodiversity in the areas, said Mu Dongsheng, vice-governor of Qinghai.

The newly examined overall program to take effect in the years ahead will focus efforts on grass growth by grazing limitation, wetlands protection, cloud seeding, and energy development in areas inhabited by 223,100 grazers.

(China Daily February 3, 2005)