The potential economic returns from wetlands shouldn’t be ignored and if they were it was possible these areas could disappear, an official from the Forestry Bureau of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region has warned.

 

 

“In most people’s minds, wetlands have only ecological and social benefits such as conserving biological diversity, controlling floods and storing water. However, the huge economic returns of wetlands have always been neglected resulting in the destruction of many of them,” Su Yong, director of the Wildlife Protection Department of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region’s Forestry Bureau, was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.

 

In recent years the exploration and utilization of China’s wetlands have been in a muddled and disordered state with many having been destroyed. Experts advocate that relevant governments should improve their efforts in spreading popular science to help the country better understand that the wetlands have real economic value.

 

According to Su Yong, the economic value of the wetlands is considerable and reflected in them being a valuable resource which can meet the demands for water in irrigation, industries, daily household use, various breeding industries and power generation.

 

With a wide range of species, abundant feeding sources and a lot of water, the wetlands provide a kind of paradise for fish, waterfowl and plant life. “The high biological productivity can provide rich nutrients to agricultural and aquatic products, increasing their output and added value,” Su observed.

 

“Wetland is also a source of tourism,” said Su. “Taking Guangxi as an example, many river and seashore wetlands in the region are attracting more and more tourists thanks to their unique ecological landscape and various wildlife and they’ve become much visited scenic spots. This is also an important demonstration of economic returns.”

 

There are eight wetland nature reserves in Guangxi covering 54,425 hectares. With a 1,595-kilometer coastline, the wetlands in Guangxi are mainly comprised of offshore and seashore, river and lake wetlands.

 

It is one of the country’s several provinces which have a complete and large number of wetlands. In the wetland eco-system of Guangxi there are around 175 families of plant with 1,115 species and 55 animal families with 985 species.

 

(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, November 24, 2006)