China's wetlands shrinks by nine per cent in a decade

China's wetlands have shrunk by nearly nine per cent in a decade which has aggravated water scarcity in the country, according to a recent official survey.
China has a total of 53.6 million hectares of wetlands, which meant that wetlands covering an area larger than the Netherlands, or twice the size of Beijing, have disappeared since the last survey in 2003, a four-year survey by the State Forestry Administration said.
"Experts have proved that the "red line" for wetland protection is around 53-million hectors by 2020. We set the "red line" to reverse the trend of land erosion and degradation," Zhang Yongli, the Deputy head of the State Forestry Administration said.

"It's also an urgent need to promote ecological civilisation, making our country a better place to live in and achieving sustainable development," he said.
The lost wetlands have been converted to agricultural use, swallowed by large infrastructure projects, or degraded by climate change, official media here reported.
Wetlands lost to infrastructure projects have increased tenfold during the past decade.

So far, there is no national law to protect wetlands, only provincial regulations, Zhang said, adding, such legislation should be made at soon as possible.
"Current regulations and rules have some clauses on wetland protection, but most are in fragments and disorganised, far from meeting the need of our work," he said.

"Provisions for investigation and supervision of land use, the punishment for lawbreakers and better performance of International conventions are still nearly blank. Thus, a set of practical and binding regulations, specially for wetland protection, is badly needed," he said.
For the period between 2011 to 2015, China has allocated 12.9 billion yuan (about USD two billion) to protect its wetlands.
The condition has aggravated the water scarcity in China where food production, energy output and industrial activity are already under pressure from water shortages.