Impact of Sustainable Wetland Conservation Policies
Attributes
Medium: Land
Country: China
Analytical Framework(s): Least Cost Concept
Study Date: 2008
Publication Date: 2009
Major Result(s)
| Resource/Environmental Good | CNY, million currency units (2008) |
|---|---|
| cost of Irrigation System Reconstruction | 20.14 |
| cost of Ecological Water Control Reservoir | 87.39 |
| cost of Water-saving Planting Practices | 1.03 |
| cost of Switching from Paddy to Dry Crops | 10.90 |
Study Note: The conservation of the Sanjiang wetlands raises typical conservation issues in China. Wetland ecosystems have traditionally encountered threats from the direct consumption of their precious resources by local residents, but the more important and indirect threats come from the water demands driven by the overall development strategy of the country, including agricultural development, urbanization and industrialization.
Study Details
Summary: A primary cause of the loss of wetlands in China is the competition for water between the wetlands and their surrounding areas. The purpose of this study was to explore cost-effective policy options to reduce off-site water use to support the sustainable conservation of the Qixinghe Wetland in Sanjiang Plain. This study calculated the cost-effectiveness of four policy options and compared their trade-offs by using the multi-criteria method. Option I was to reconstruct the irrigation systems in the surrounding areas of the wetland where agriculture competed with the wetland for water. This option was the government's most favored strategy, but was only the third most cost-effective. Option II was to construct a dam to store and control floodwaters to relieve seasonal water scarcity. This option was the most reliable in terms of saving water. It was also the farmers' most favored strategy, but it imposed a high cost on the local government and therefore did not receive strong support from the authorities. Option III was to promote the adoption of water-saving practices by providing farmers with training courses. This strategy was the most cost-effective, but was less effective in saving water. This option also did not receive strong support from the farmers and government and, was therefore not likely to be selected. In Option IV, water saving was achieved by converting some paddy fields to dryland crops. This option turned out to be politically unfeasible because it was the least preferred strategy of the government and farmers. It was also the least effective in saving water. If equal weights were given to all four criteria, Option I would have the best overall performance while Option IV would be the least preferred strategy. Based on these conclusions, we made suggestions on how the the local government should tackle the wetland's water shortage problem and how the central and provincial governments could solve such a problem at the macro level.
Site Characteristics: Sanjiang Plain is a vast, low-lying alluvial floodplain in the northeastern segment of Heilongjiang Province. It is situated at the confluence of three rivers: the Heilong (Amur), the Wusuli (Ussuri), and the Songhua. The plain has high ecological significance nationally, regionally, and globally. The wetlands perform crucial ecological functions, maintaining the hydrological balance, regulating water flow, mitigating floods, and purifying the water and air. The Sanjiang Wetlands are the most important breeding grounds and migration routes of migratory waterfowls in northeastern Asia and provide habitats for numerous species of wildlife. Thirty-seven wildlife vertebrate species ranked by the World Conservation Union (IUCN) as globally threatened are found in these wetlands, 20 of which are wetland birds. For some of these wetland birds, the plain represents a significant portion of their remaining global habitat area. However, these wetlands have been dramatically reduced by agricultural development during the last 50 years. The Sanjiang Plain's high-quality soil and favorable climate for grain production has made it the focus of government agricultural development programs beginning from the early 1950s. The central government has strongly encouraged settlement in and reclamation of the wetlands, and the development of large-scale farming in the plain. This long-term focus on agricultural production in the plain has exacerbated the conflict between ecological conservation and agricultural development. Water is the key factor affecting the value of wetlands. Recent statistics show that agriculture has consumed more than 75% of the water resources in the plain and it is predicted that its irrigated acreage under paddy will be doubled in the next 15 years which will require--under current farming practices--increasing quantities of irrigation water, leading to a sharp drop in the water table in the wetlands.
Comments: This study explored policy options to reduce the off-site water use in the Qixinghe Wetland in Sanjiang Plain to support better policy decisions to achieve the multiple objectives of wetland conservation, agricultural development, and water resource management. We chose the Qixinghe Wetland and its surrounding area as our case study site in order to collect strong evidence to understand the real water conflict issues and explore concrete cost-effective ways of reducing off-site water use for sustainable wetland conservation.