Policy Analysis pubs.acs.org/est
Balancing the Needs of China’s Wetland Conservation and Rice Production Hongjun Chen,*,† Guoping Wang,‡ Xianguo Lu,‡ Ming Jiang,‡ and Irving A. Mendelssohn§ †
Applied Sciences Bureau, South Florida Water Management District, 3301 Gun Club Road, West Palm Beach, Florida 33406, United States ‡ Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, 130102 Jilin, China § Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, School of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, United States ABSTRACT: China’s rice policy for protecting paddy fields and constructing rice production bases is in conflict with its wetland conservation strategy. The policy will increase the rice planting area, the loss of remaining wetlands, and environmental pollution, with intensive application of fertilizers and heavy use of pesticides. The key to resolving this conflict is to bring rice production in compliance with wetland conservation and sustainable agriculture. An operational, sound regulatory program is needed to improve China’s wetland conservation. Using wetland conservation in the US as an example, we argue that more effective technical guidelines for wetland inventory and monitoring are necessary to support the implementation of the regulatory program. Agricultural conservation programs are also needed to stop further wetland loss from agricultural usages. An ecoagricultural strategy and practice should be adopted for rice production to reduce pollution and loss of remaining wetlands. Agroecological engineering tools can be used to reduce the impacts of nutrient- and pesticide-enriched agricultural runoff to wetlands.
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INTRODUCTION The Chinese have cultivated land for food production along the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, cradles of Chinese civilization, and have harvested a variety of food sources from surrounding wetlands for 5000 years (Figure 1). China’s wetlands have high biodiversity, containing >1600 species of plants and >1,700 species of animals, including >700 species of fish and >270 species of waterfowl.1−3 Despite the intensive use and development of the Yangtze River valley, home to over 400 million people, this river supports an impressive biodiversity, including the highly endangered Yangtze alligator (Alligator sinensis), Yangtze River dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer), Siberian white crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus), and Chinese sturgeon (Acipenser sinensis).1 Wetlands with a wide variety of physical and geographic characteristics are found from the seashore to the Tibetan Plateau around lakes and rivers throughout the country, spanning five climatic zones: tropical, subtropical, warm-temperate, temperate, and cold-temperate. China has a natural wetland area of 46.67 million hectares (M ha) that composes 5.58% of its territory, including 21.73 M ha of freshwater marshes, 8.59 M ha of lacustrine habitats, 10.55 M ha of riverine wetlands, and 5.80 M ha of marine and coastal wetlands. It has an artificial wetland area of 36.80 M ha, including 30.60 M ha of paddy fields.2 China’s natural wetlands have been heavily impacted over the past century by human activities including draining, filling, and clearing for agriculture and development.4 Twenty to 30% of all remaining natural wetlands have been destroyed or degraded © 2015 American Chemical Society
since the 1950s. More than 50% of coastal wetlands such as tidal flats and mangrove wetlands have been lost to agricultural production and urban development.5,6 Much of the loss has occurred through the conversion of wetlands to the cultivation of rice (Oryza sativa), a staple food in China.7 With increasing economic growth over the past century, the relationship between agriculture and surrounding wetlands is not always harmonious. As pressures increase from economic growth, can wetlands and intensive agriculture harmoniously coexist and work in concert to the benefit of society? What are strategies and visions for the agricultural landscape that incorporate ecologically important wetlands? Here, we examine China’s rice production and its effects on wetland conservation over the past seven decades and further review conflicts between the needs of rice production and wetland conservation. We discuss wetland regulatory tools and sustainable agricultural approaches that are needed to resolve the conflicts, using wetland conservation in the US as an example. Finally, we suggest directions for future efforts to obtain scientifically sound data on wetland inventory, monitoring, and mapping for the improvement and implementation of current wetland regulatory programs. Received: Revised: Accepted: Published: 6385
April 18, 2014 April 10, 2015 May 8, 2015 May 8, 2015 DOI: 10.1021/es505988z Environ. Sci. Technol. 2015, 49, 6385−6393
Policy Analysis
Environmental Science & Technology
Figure 1. Distribution of natural wetland and rice planting areas in China. Data on wetland and rice planting areas were taken from the State Forestry Administration and National Bureau of Statistics of China, respectively.2,8 Vertical bars represent wetland and rice planting areas in each province. For example, total wetland and rice planting areas in Heilongjiang province, located in the northeastern China, were 5.1 and 3.1 M ha, respectively.
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METHODS An analysis of China’ rice production was first performed with data from the National Bureau of Statistics to review the trend of rice cultivation practices from 1949 to 2012. A case study was conducted to investigate six-decade changes in the area of freshwater marshes, cropland, and rice planting on the Sanjiang Plain of Heilongjiang Province, the largest area of remaining freshwater marsh and the most important rice production region in north China, to understand the impact of rice production on wetlands. Second, wetland conservation at the national level was assessed through a review of environmental laws and regulations that relate to wetland management over the past 70 years. Attention was focused on the enforcement of environmental laws and regulations in relation to historical wetland loss to see whether these policies accomplish their goals to improve wetland conservation, using an environmental life-cycle assessment approach. Third, legislative approaches for wetland conservation were compared, with an example of the US approach to wetland management, to further protect China’s natural wetlands from being developed for rice cultivation. Historical data on China’s and America’s wetland area were also collected from published literature and presented for comparative purposes.
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most natural wetlands occur (Figure 1). Rice production makes up 41% of China’s total grain output and accounts for 30% of the world’s annual rice crop.8 From 1949 to 2012, rice production increased 4.2-fold (Figure 2) because of the
Figure 2. Rice production and planting areas, fertilizer use, and irrigated cropland area in China from 1949 to 2012.8,9
development of high-yielding varieties, the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and intensive agricultural practices using irrigation.7,9,10 Chemical fertilizer usage increased 153-fold from 1957 to 2011. Over the past two decades, the rate of nitrogen fertilizer application for rice production was 180 kg ha−1, 75% higher than the world’s average.7 China was the largest pesticide-using country in the
RESULTS
Rice Production and Its Impacts to Wetlands. Rice paddy fields currently occupy 20% of China’s arable land.7 More than 90% of the rice cultivation area is distributed around rivers and lakes in southern and northeastern China where 6386
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Policy Analysis
Environmental Science & Technology world in the 1990s, and its pesticide usage increased 2.1-fold from 1991 to 2007.9,10 Large quantities of fertilizers and pesticides have entered aquatic and wetland environments through farm runoff, resulting in eutrophication and contamination of these ecosystems.4,11 Approximately 70% of lakes and floodplain wetlands in the Yangtze River basin were severely polluted by agricultural runoff.4,12 On the Jianghan-Dongting Plain, a major rice planting area, water pollution caused by fertilizer and pesticide runoff is one of the most serious threats to fish and wildlife, such as the Yangtze alligator and Yangtze River dolphin.4 Forty percent of China’s rivers are seriously polluted, and 20% of them have been rated too toxic, in terms of the national water quality standard, for human contact partially due to the estimated 14,000 petrochemical plants along the basin of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers where 1,700 water pollution accidents have been reported annually.13 The irrigation of millions of hectares of paddy fields makes great demands on limited water resources in freshwater marshes, particularly in northern China. The area of irrigated cropland increased 1.4-fold from 1977 to 2011 (Figure 2). Water used for irrigation and other agricultural activities accounted for 70−80% of the total withdrawal from surface and groundwater sources over the past two decades. Freshwater shortages caused by rice production pose serious threats to the continued maintenance and functioning of these surrounding aquatic and wetland ecosystems. Intensive rice farming with increasing chemical usage and irrigation intensity adversely impacts primary ecosystem services that surrounding wetlands provide.12,14 In particular, increasing agricultural nutrient loads to wetlands decrease biodiversity and result in the invasion of exotic species, which reduces habitat quality for flora and fauna and upsets the natural balance of an ecosystem. A decrease in biodiversity in turn lessens the long-term capacity of wetlands to process nutrients efficiently, as biodiverse wetlands are typically more resilient to pests and diseases, have longer growing seasons, and support more intensive nutrient cycling. The need to tackle these problems has been recognized worldwide.14,15 With an increasing population, China will produce about 20% more rice by 2030 to meet domestic needs if rice consumption per capita stays at the current level.7,16 Its current rice policy, including the protection of paddy fields and the construction of rice production bases, reflects the importance of food security for its population.7 Also, the increasing demand for high-quality rice significantly affects regional crop rotations and plot layout of different varieties of rice.16 This demand, on the one hand, results in a decrease in the production of early season indica-type rice with high output and low food quality. On the other hand, this demand for high-quality encourages farmers to increase the production of late-season japonica-type rice with low output and high food quality. Therefore, these agricultural needs have caused an increase in rice planting area annually at a rate of 13% (equivalent to 0.4 M ha year−1) from 2003 to 2012 (Figure 2), resulting in greater wetland loss and/ or pollution of remaining wetlands. For example, the Sanjiang Plain of Heilongjiang annually lost approximately 63,000 ha of freshwater marshes primarily to rice planting over the past 60 years and only one M ha of wetlands currently remain (Figure 3).17 This loss occurred in spite of the fact that cultivation and excavation of wetlands have been banned by the Heilongjiang provincial government.18 Seemingly at odds with the need to increase rice production is the State Forest Administration of China (SFA), a leading
Figure 3. Changes in area of freshwater marshes and cropland on the Sanjiang Plain of Heilongjiang Province in northeastern China from 1950 to 2012 and in rice planting in Heilongjiang Province from 1978 to 2012.2,8,17 The p-values indicate significant changes in area over the period of time.
agency that protects natural wetlands. The SFA launched in 2000 the National Wetland Conservation Action Plan (NWCAP), the first comprehensive wetland policy in China, and subsequently the 2002−2030 National Wetland Conservation Program (NWCP), in partnership with 17 other central government agencies (Table 1).The SFA and NWCP serve as general guidelines for the conservation and wise use of wetlands, with long-term goals of establishing 713 natural wetland reserves and having 90% of the natural wetlands effectively conserved to restore 1.4 M ha of previously lost wetlands by 2030.19 This ambitious wetland conservation program is in conflict with China’s current rice policy. The central government, therefore, has to deal with three main issues. First, wetlands and rice production, the two largest water users, increasingly compete for limited water resources. Second, current rice production increasingly depends on fertilizers and pesticides, which unavoidably results in considerable pollution of wetlands. Third, increasing pressures for higher rice production with better food quality to support the increasing human population may reclaim more marginally productive lands like wetlands for agricultural use. Wetland Conservation and Management. China’s wetland conservation has gone through the first three stages of a typical policy life cycle (Figure 4). Prior to the recognition of the ecological roles that wetlands play, wetlands had been considered primarily as wastelands with floods, diseases, and other problems of mosquitoes and snakes for a long period of time. After the founding of “New China” in 1949, China had about 46 M ha of natural wetlands in the 1950s.4 Some largescale projects, such as “Learn from Dazhai in Agriculture” (1964−1978) and “Develop the Great Northern Wilderness” (1957−1977) campaigns, led to draining marshes and filling lakes for agriculture.12 The Chinese Communist leaders gradually realized the impacts that economic development posed on the environment late in Mao’s Era. From 1950 to 1978, 14.97 M ha of natural wetlands were rapidly lost at a rate of 535,000 ha year−1 during these three decades, while rice planting and production greatly increased, in particular, from the 1960s to the 1970s (Figures 2 and 5A). The recognition stage carried a low political “weight” in which the degree of dissension, controversy, and political uncertainty about wetland issues was high. 6387
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2011
2009
2003
2000
1988
1986
1984
1983
1979
date
National Wetland Conservation Action Plan (NWCAP) The 2002−2030 National Wetland Conservation Program (NWCP) The Wetland Conservation Subsidy Program Agricultural Wetland Conservation and Utilization Plan
Water Resources Law, amended in 2002
Marine Environment Protection Law Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law, amended in 1996 and 2008 Fishery Law
Environment Protection Law, amended in 1989 and 2015
laws and regulations
Promoted agricultural wetland conservation and wise use.
Promoted the protection and reasonable utilization of fishery resources, developed artificial cultivation, and boosted fishery production. Developed, utilized, conserved, and managed water resources and prevented and controlled water disasters to meet the need of national economic and social development. A guideline for the conservation, management, and wise use of wetlands. The first national wetland inventory was completed in 2003. The 2005−2010 and 2011−2015 Implementation Plans for the NWCP were formulated in 2005 and 2011, respectively. The second national wetland inventory was completed in 2013. Established compensation mechanisms for wetland conservation practice.
Some environmental regulations and standards were promulgated to protect and improve the human and ecological environment, prevent and control pollution and other public hazards, and safeguard human health. Increased economic use of the sea’s resources, prevented marine environment pollution, and balanced the need for marine industry with marine environmental protection. Prevented and controlled the pollution of rivers, lakes, and other surface water bodies and of groundwater bodies.
major legislative actions
Table 1. Legislative Actions and Policies Affecting Wetlands in China12,19,22 impacts to wetland conservation
Many wetlands were protected through establishing wetland reserves, but the goal of the 2005−2010 Implementation Plan was only partially achieved, due to severe droughts, insufficient funds, and economic growth priorities.
Many provincial wetland conservation regulations were promulgated and implemented.
Fifty percent of the industrial pollution in the basins of three major rivers (the Huai, Liao, and Hai Rivers) was controlled. Organic pollution and eutrophication in the three major lakes (the Tai, Dianchi, and Chao Lakes) were to some extent controlled. Many freshwater wetlands were overutilized or reclaimed for fishery production. Many fish ponds were constructed for fishery production. Increasing water scarcity has endangered food production, energy output, and industrial activity. The implementation of this law made wetland conservation face severe water shortage.
Some coastal wetlands overutilized or reclaimed for agriculture and development.
Potential threats that rapid modernization posed on the environment were realized.
Environmental Science & Technology Policy Analysis
Figure 4. China’s wetland loss status presented in a typical policy life cycle that has four stages: recognition, formulation, implementation, and control. Each of the stages carries a certain amount of political “weight”, which is presented by the trajectory of the life-cycle line. The degree of dissension, the distance between the two lines, represents controversy and political uncertainty about wetland issues in a stage of the life cycle. China’s current position is in the implementation stage of the policy life cycle, while America’s position is currently in the control stage.
Figure 5. Historical annual net loss (−) and gain (+) estimates for China from 1950 to 2013 (A)2,4,20 and the conterminous United States from first settlement to 2009 (B) .27,33−35 The annual net loss in periods of 1978−1990, 1990−2000, and 2000−2008 was estimated based on Landsat and CBERS-02B remote sensing data.20 The annual net loss in 2003−2013 was calculated according to the two national wetland inventories conducted by the SFA.2 Discrepancies for the estimate of wetland loss may occur because the two different methods were used.
The formulation stage began in the 1980s after China passed the Environmental Protection Law, the first foundational law on the environment (Table 1). Subsequently, China
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Environmental Science & Technology Table 2. Legislative Actions, Policies, and Technical Guidance Affecting Wetlands in the United States30−32 date
law, regulation, and technical guidance
major legislative actions affecting wetland conservation
1890 1902 1934
Rivers and Harbors Act Reclamation Act Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, amended in 1946, 1958, 1967 Federal Aid to Wildlife Restoration, amended in 1974 Wetlands Loan Act The Clean Water Act, amended in 1977, 1982 Coastal Zone Management Act Executive Order 11990 (Protection of Wetlands) and 11988 (Floodplain Management) Swampbuster of Food Security Act (the Farm Bills), amended in 1990 Wetland Delineation Manual
Encouraged dredging and filling activities affecting navigable waters. Led to a survey of “wastelands” that could be reclaimed for agriculture. An early interest in restoring and maintaining wildlife habitats emerged. Foundation for water quality control and need for biological integrity was established. Aids to acquire, restore, and maintain wildlife areas. Provided interest-free loans for wetland acquisitions and easements. Provided guidance for water quality improvement and wetland conservation. Developed plans for coastal management. Required federal agencies to minimize wetland loss and protect wetland values and to avoid activities in floodplains. Eliminated subsidies to farmers who converted wetlands to agriculture.
1937 1961 1972 1972 1977 1985 1987 1988 1989 1991 1996
“No net loss” policy, established by President George Bush and subsequently endorsed by President Bill Clinton in 1993 The National Wetlands Priority Conservation Plan The Wetland Reserve Program, established under Food, Agriculture, Conservation and Trade Act The federal wetland classification system
A technical manual for wetland delineation based on three mandatory technical criteria (hydrology, soils, and vegetation) for a parcel of land to be defined a wetland. Established the goal of the “No net loss” for wetland conservation. Acquisition to be prioritized by degree of public benefit, representation of rare/declining wetland types within an ecoregion, and subject to further loss/degradation. Landowner may volunteer to be paid to restore previously drained wetlands. Benefits to farmers who planted crops on wetlands were denied. Secretary of US Interior Bruce Babbitt made the Cowardin et al. (1979) classification system the federal standard for classifying wetlands.
Wetland Reserves in coastal regions and the basins of the Pearl, Yangtze, Yellow, and Heilong Rivers were established. Jilin, Sichuan, and Tibet and other eight provinces promulgated their wetlands conservation regulations. Many wetland museums and education centers were established nationwide and attracted millions of visitors from all walks of life, greatly enhancing public awareness of the ecological goods and services that wetlands provide. In addition, the first and second national wetland inventories were completed in 2003 and 2013, respectively.2 Over the decade from 2003 to 2013, China’s wetlands declined at a net loss rate of 338,000 ha year−1, which was greatly higher than that based on the analysis of remote sensing data in 2000−2008 (Figure 5A). Large areas of riverine and lacustrine wetlands were converted into artificial reservoirs, paddy fields, and fish and shrimp ponds in eastern China where rice grows, while wetland area increased in the west such as Tibet and Xinjiang.2,20 Although great effort was made by China to protect its wetlands over the past decade, wetland conversion for rice cultivation and other uses often occurred.2,6,17,22,23 China’s wetland status is currently not in the fourth stage of the policy life cycle yet (Figure 4). Why cannot laws and regulations for resource conservation (Table 1) effectively prevent natural wetlands from being converted for agricultural use? Several viewpoints should be emphasized. First, most laws and regulations enacted prior to the 2000s have specific purposes for marine, fishery, or wildlife resource conservation and are not exclusively for wetland conservation, although they have relevance to wetlands. Second, jurisdiction over wetlands is spread over several central government agencies, e.g., SFA, State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Water Resources. Interagency coordination seems lacking to efficiently and effectively enforce those laws and regulations. Third, those laws and regulations, like some armchair strategies, address problems only on paper but do not have operational guidance and technical protocols for their execution. For example, the NWCAP of 2000 and the NWCP of 2003 lack a scientifically sound foundation because the first national wetland inventory was not completed until 2003, while a
promulgated a series of laws relating to the exploitation and conservation of natural resources including marine environment, water resource, wildlife, and fishery, growing out of the basic principles of the Environmental Protection Law. A number of local implementing regulations were accordingly formulated by local governments in the 1980s−1990s. The formulation stage had rapidly increasing political weight and decreasing degree of dissension. However, there was no single comprehensive law that governs the conservation of wetlands. The media usually publicized these environmental laws and regulations. The public began to be aware of natural resource conservation, but specific measures to encourage public participation in environmental protection were limited. On the other hand, law enforcement seemed futile, and not much was done beyond the promulgation of some water quality standards, due to limited funding and the need for rapid economic growth, a national priority policy. Starting with the Economic Reform in 1978, extensive wetlands were drained or filled and converted to agricultural and other uses. Natural wetlands were continuously and rapidly lost at a rate of 552,000 ha year−1 from 1978 to 1990 (Figure 5A). In the meanwhile, national rice production increased with greatly increased usage of fertilizer (Figure 2). The rate of wetland loss greatly slowed from 1990 to 2000 (Figure 5A). A possible reason is that few wetlands available in the east could be converted, and wetlands in the west such as Tibet and Xinjiang are too challenging to be exploited for agriculture and development (Figure 1).20 After the massive floods of 1998 awakened the sleeping Dragon,21 China’s wetland conservation hastily began the implementation stage of the policy life cycle (Figure 4). Following the 2003 launch of the 2002−2030 NWCP, the 2005−2010 and 2011−2015 Implementation Plans for the NWCP were established in 2005 and 2011, respectively (Table 1). The 2005−2010 Implementation Plan for the NWCP seemed successful in the protection of existing wetlands.22 During this five-year period, the ecological condition of degraded wetlands in the 205 project sites was effectively restored and improved. Approximately 250 wetland parks with a total area of 1.16 M ha in urban areas and 180 National 6389
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The Clean Water Act also authorized the US Fish and Wildlife Service to complete a national wetland inventory. The status and trends in national wetlands are required by the US Congress to be updated every 10 years. Moreover, specific and strict federal guidelines (known as “1987 Wetlands Delineation Manual”) provide technical criteria to determine whether a parcel of land is a wetland requiring such a permit review process. Additionally, several federal wetland policies, e.g., Executive Order 11990, require that all federal agencies provide leadership to protect, preserve, and enhance the natural and beneficial values of wetlands in carrying out the agency’s responsibilities.30 As a result of these policies, there was a dramatic reduction in wetland loss from 1974 to 1982 (Figure 5B). In spite of laws, regulations, and policies for wetland protection, a conflict between wetland protection and agriculture still existed in the US in the 1970s to the 1980s.30 The USACE and USEPA promoted wetland conservation through the Clean Water Act, while the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) encouraged conversion of wetlands for farmlands by providing federal subsidies for drainage projects. This conflict ended when “Swampbuster” provisions of the Food Security Act of 1985 within the Farm Bill were passed. The “Swampbuster” provisions denied federal subsidies to any farm owner who knowingly converted wetlands to farmland. The “Swampbuster” provisions also drew the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) of the USDA into federal wetland management. The NRSC administers a Wetland Reserve Program to identify wetlands on agricultural land under both the Clean Water Act and the “Swampbuster” provisions. Swampbuster and the Wetland Reserve Program are the two largest efforts to conserve wetlands in the agricultural landscape.26 Wetland conservation practices, including wetland creation, enhancement, restoration, wetland wildlife habitat management, and riparian forest buffer establishment, have added to or enhanced wetland acreage in agricultural landscapes and re-established ecosystem services, providing regional benefits in terms of water quality, flood abatement, biodiversity support, and carbon storage.15,36 Currently, a specific, operational wetland regulatory program like Section 404 of the Clean Water Act is lacking in China. Because agricultural activities have been responsible for wetland loss and degradation, it is essential to make this topic a focus for policymakers and seek to protect the remaining wetlands in agricultural landscapes. Conservation programs such as Swampbuster and Wetland Reserve Program provide examples and solutions for China’s similar needs. The SFA should work closely with other central governmental agencies, in particular, the Ministry of Agriculture, to bring together agricultural communities to find ways of managing wetlands to meet the needs of the two and to balance the needs of rice production and wetland protection.2 In the process of agricultural policy making, conservation programs should be developed to drive agricultural conservation practices. Local, regional, and central governments, for example, may subsidize agricultural conservation practices and partially share costs for some conservation practices with producers. Therefore, goals for sustainable agriculture should maintain the farmer’s income and support farm commodities through incentive-based approaches as is encouraged by the Wetland Conservation Subsidy Program of 2010 (Table 1), a pilot project specifically funding wetland conservation. Hopefully, an efficient compensation mechanism for wetland
national wetland database or map was not available at least until 2009.6,24 So far, the NWCAP has not needed technical guidelines for wetland identification, delineation, classification, monitoring, and mapping, since a widely accepted definition of wetland has still not been established.25 Therefore, the NWCAP and NWCP require further improvement to clarify the specific responsibilities for wetland oversight of the various central governmental agencies and to provide a synthesis of existing legislation, policies, and programs that already contribute to wetland conservation. A consistent, coordinated approach among those agencies that influence wetlands should be developed and aimed at modifying activities that are at cross purposes to sound wetland management and ensuring progress toward specific wetland conservation goals. One long-term national goal for wetland conversation is to ensure that its legislation, policies, and programs do not result in a net loss of the nation’s remaining wetlands, similar to wetland management goals in the US.26,27 The US took approximately 50 years to reach the goal of the “No net loss” for wetland conservation and finish the policy life cycle, according to Dahl’s report of 2011.27 China has a long way to go before a policy of no net loss of the nation’s remaining wetlands can become a cornerstone of wetland conservation. Legislative Approaches for Wetland Conservation. Obviously, the enforcement of laws and regulations greatly needs to be strengthened to effectively protect wetlands. The technical implementation of these laws and regulations currently faces considerable challenges, not the least of which is emphasizing the responsibility of governmental officials for environmental sustainability.28 Technically lessons can be learned from wetland conservation in the US, in terms of the implementation of laws and regulations (Table 2). A general similarity in wetland resources (area, type, climatic zone, etc.) exists between the two nations. China and the US have agreed to enhance their cooperation on wetland conservation and management.29 The comparative study of the laws, regulations, and policies of wetlands between the two nations has become one of the primary focuses in the Ten-Year Action Plan that fosters collaboration on best practices in wetland policy, monitoring, management, and scientific research and helps build the capacity of each country to protect these crucial areas. Hopefully, this cooperation will provide support for wetland conservation and management in China. Wetland conservation in the US has been in the control stage of the policy life cycle with little net loss of natural wetlands since the 1980s (Figures 4 and 5B). Historical changes in net wetland loss and gain in the US show a key role that laws and regulations play in national wetland conservation. Among the federal laws, regulations, and policies, Sections 404 and 401 of the 1972 Clean Water Act, jointly administered by the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), is the primary wetland regulatory tool.30 Under Section 404 of the 1972 Clean Water Act, for example, parties dredging or filling material in waters of the US, including wetlands, must obtain an individual permit that is required for potentially significant impacts or a general nationwide, regional, or state permit for particular categories of activities. Parties obtaining a permit must provide compensation for any remaining, unavoidable impacts through creating, restoring, or enhancing wetlands in the same watershed. Failure to obtain a permit or comply with the terms of a permit can result in civil and/or criminal penalties. 6390
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multipond system can also be combined with another traditional agricultural practice, for example, the Integrated Farming System, to further promote waste utilization and recycling.39,40,45,46 This aquaculture practice of raising fish in irrigated paddy fields can recycle fish droppings, use fish for pest control, and decrease fertilizer and pesticide use, without increasing environmental damage.39,40,46 The economic climate encourages the introduction of relatively low cost pollution treatment systems, which is currently a global trend for stringent environmental standards. Therefore, restoring the multipond system on agricultural landscapes should be encouraged to store and harvest stormwater and retain suspended sediments and transported nutrients from agricultural fields. Alternatively or concurrently, the use of constructed wetlands to treat agricultural runoff from rice farms prior to discharge into lakes and rivers may be considered.41 Additionally, wise and sustainable use of wetlands for rice farming and wild rice cultivars may be encouraged in natural wetlands and the seasonally flooded areas created by the Three Gorges Dam and the South-to-North Water Diversion Project,22,47 but the feasibility of such wetland usage needs to be evaluated. Need for Further Research Efforts. Prior to the 1990s, only a few wetland studies were conducted in China primarily focusing on marsh resource inventory and utilization.42,43,45,46,48 With increasing research funding available, subsequent wetland research has rapidly expanded and covered a wider range of topics including the ecological and hydrologic processes in wetlands, effects of global climate change on wetlands, and wetland function and evaluation since the 2000s.49 An understanding of the interaction of ecological and hydrological functions and nutrient cycling in wetlands should become a research goal for wetland conservation. Studies of wetland restoration are also helpful to support wetland conservation. Where wetland topography and hydrology are restorable and where the economics are favorable, restoring those wetlands is not unreasonable. For example, marginally productive paddy fields offer great opportunities for wetland restoration in the agricultural landscape, but this wetland restoration activity faces great challenges with increasing pressure for current rice production and policy. A set of scientifically sound and technically operational guidelines for wetland delineation, classification, inventory, monitoring, and mapping is needed to support the enforcement of the NWCAP and NWCP. National wetlands have been roughly inventoried based on Ramsar’s wetland classification.2,3 First, Ramsar’s wetland definition is quite broad, extending the water depth criterion of wetlands to six meters, thereby including many lakes, rivers, and other deepwater habitats and/ or open waters.25 Artificial fish and shrimp ponds and rice paddies are within the scope of this wetland definition. Data on those wetlands including artificial fish and shrimp ponds and rice paddies1−3 may mislead policymaking for the protection of natural wetlands. Second, this inventory approach was used primarily for initial identification of important wetlands for wise use and biodiversity conservation, but changes in the extent and condition of these wetlands received little attention. Such European oriented, Ramsar-based wetland definitions cannot well characterize the wetlands of China because of their vast size, diversity of types, complex characteristics, and geographically wide distribution. Therefore, a customized Chinabased wetland definition that is scientifically sound and regulatorily effective for wetland conservation needs to be made available to and understood by all those formulating and
conservation will be established in the future. Finally, the development of a specific wetland policy, similar to Executive Order 11990, would help to coordinate and require all related central agencies to make a positive contribution to natural wetland protection as an important part of their policies.
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DISCUSSION Perspectives for Sustainable Agriculture To Reduce Impacts to Wetlands. Sustainable rice cultivation has been developed to allow an evolution of sound ecoagricultural relationships in China for thousands of years. Unlike traditional rice cultivation, current rice farms are not “working wetlands”, although paddy fields often are classified as artificial wetlands.14 In spite of being flooded during the growing season, rice fields do not provide wetland habitat for wildlife and macroinvertebrates due to the use of fertilizers and pesticides and do not perform many of the other wetland ecosystem services such as carbon sequestration and biodiversity conservation.37 Also, there has been a concern for managing nutrient loads from paddy fields into natural wetlands. Agriculture has to become optimally efficient at fertilizer utilization.7 As the cost of fertilizer production rises, agriculture needs to progress toward integrating energy efficiency with maximized production and nutrient utilization.38 Best management practices and lowimpact development strategies should be adopted to reduce use of fertilizers and pesticides for sustainable rice cultivation.7,39 Understanding how wetlands function in agricultural landscapes helps clarify the positive roles of wetlands particularly in nutrient removal. Historically, nutrients in runoff from paddy fields were treated as valuable resources that are recycled and returned to the environment in ecologically balanced ways.40 The multiple pond system is such an example of traditional agricultural technology that integrates rice, fish, and other food production in an agricultural watershed that includes primarily rice fields and other nonirrigated farmlands.41,42 The multipond system is designed for water retention, flood control, and the irrigation of paddy fields that have existed in southern and southeastern China for 3000 years. This system is composed of many small, scattered ponds connected by artificial ditches or streams.42 The ponds are colonized by a variety of aquatic plants, including edible lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) and water caltrop (Trapa natans and T. bicornis).38,39 The total pond area typically occupies 6−10% of the watershed. Ponds vary in size from 0.1 to 1 ha, each serving an area of 0.5−10 ha. The ponds are dug to store agricultural runoff, with a mean depth of 1.5 m, and to irrigate adjacent rice fields. The artificial ditches are built typically as dikes, with a wall height of 0.3 m and the width of 0.5−1.5 m, dependent on local ground elevations. Some of the ponds are used for aquaculture that provides protein sources for surrounding villagers. The multipond systems can effectively retain nutrients from agricultural land and reduce pollution to downstream wetlands although the original purpose of these systems was the irrigation of agricultural fields.43,44 During a rainfall event, surface runoff from paddy fields flows into adjacent ditches and passes through a series of small ponds before it reaches downstream rivers and lakes. Approximately 50% of paddy field runoff can be recycled, and >80% of nitrogen and phosphorus and 50% of total suspended solids can be retained in the watershed.39,40 Farmers routinely harvest aquatic plants in ditches and ponds for food or to feed livestock and poultry and dig out accumulated sediments every 3−4 years in early spring and apply them to adjacent rice fields as a soil ameliorant. The 6391
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(5) Han, Q.; Huang, X.; Shi, P.; Zhang, Q. Coastal wetland in south China: degradation trends, causes and protection countermeasures. Chin. Sci. Bull. 2006, 51, 121−128. (6) Cyranoski, D. Putting China’s wetlands on the map. Nature 2009, 458, 134. (7) Peng, S.; Tang, Q.; Zou, Y. Current status and challenges of rice production in China. Plant Prod. Sci. 2009, 12 (1), 3−8. (8) National Bureau of Statistics of China. China Statistical Yearbook 2012; Beijing, China, 2013 (in Chinese). (9) National Bureau of Statistics of China. China Statistical Yearbook 2008; Beijing, China, 2009 (in Chinese). (10) Wang, L. Current situation and future trend of farm chemical industry in China (in Chinese). Chemicals 1999, 38 (10), 1−8. (11) Conley, D. J.; Paerl, H. W.; Howarth, R. W.; Boesch, D. F.; Seitzinger, S. P.; Havens, K. E.; Lancelot, C.; Likens, G. E. Controlling eutrophication: nitrogen and phosphorus. Science 2009, 323, 1014− 1015. (12) Liu, J.; Diamond, L. China’s environment in a globalizing world. Nature 2005, 435, 1179−1186. (13) Economy, E. C. The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future, 2nd ed.; Cornell University Press: New York, 2010. (14) Verhoeven, J. T. A.; Setter, T. L. Agricultural use of wetlands: opportunities and limitation. Ann. Bot. 2010, 105, 155−163. (15) Brinson, M. M.; Eckles, S. D. U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation program and practice effects on wetland ecosystem services: a synthesis. Ecol. Appl. 2011, 21 (3), S116−S127. (16) Li, N. Rice economy and rice policy in China. In Proceedings of the World Rice Research Conference; Toriyama, K., Heong, K. L., Hardy, B., Eds.; Tokyo and Tsukuba, Japan, 2005. (17) Wang, Z.; Song, K.; Ma, W.; Ren, C.; Zhang, B.; Liu, D.; Chen, J.; Song, C. Loss and Fragmentation of Marshes in the Sanjiang Plain, Northeast China, 1954−2005. Wetlands 2011, 31, 945−954. (18) China Daily. Restoring China’s disappearing wetlands. 2009. www. chinadaily.com.cn/bizchina/2009-11/09 (accessed May 1, 2015). (19) State Council Information Office. Environmental Protection in China (1996−2005); Beijing, China, 2006. (20) Niu, Z.; Zhang, H.; Wang, H.; Yao, W.; Zhou, D.; Zhao, K.; Zhao, H.; et al. Mapping wetland changes in China between 1978 and 2008. Chin. Sci. Bull. 2012, 57, 2813−2823. (21) Lang, G. Forest, floods, and the environmental state in China. Organization & Environment 2002, 15, 109−130. (22) Wang, Z.; Wu, J.; Madden, M.; Mao, D. China’s wetlands: conservation plan and policy impacts. Ambio 2012, 41, 782−786. (23) Xinhua News Agency of China. China Focus: Shrinking wetlands highlight need for legal protection. August 8, 2014. http://news. xinhuanet.com/english/china/2014-08/14/c_133556827.htm (accessed May 1, 2015). (24) Ma, K.; You, L.; Liu, J.; Zhang, M. A hybrid wetland map for China: a synergistic approach using census and spatially explicit datasets. PLoS One 2012, 7 (10), e47814 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047814. (25) Chen, H.; Wang, G.; Lu, X. Wetland definitions: creation, evolution, and application. Wetland Sci. 2010, 3, 299−305. (26) Copeland, C. Wetlands: an overview of issues; CRS Report for Congress RL33483; 2010; p 22. (27) Dahl, T. E. Status and trends of wetlands in the conterminous United States 2004 to 2009;U.S. Department of the Interior; Fish and Wildlife Service: Washington, DC, 2011; p 108. (28) Liu, J. China’s road to sustainability. Science 2010, 328, 50. (29) U.S. Department of State, Wetlands Cooperation. http://www. state.gov/e/oes/eqt/tenyearframework/141871.htm (accessed September 23, 2014). (30) Mitsch, W. J.; Gosselink, J. G. Wetlands, 3rd ed.; John Wiley & Sons: New York, USA, 2000. (31) Zedler, J. B.; Fellows, M. Q.; Trnka, S. Wastelands to wetlands: links between habitat protection and ecosystem science. In Successes, Limitations, and Frontiers in ecosystem science; Pace, M. L., Groffman, P. M., Eds.; Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 1998; pp 70−112.
implementing wetland policies. Third, the methodology for the national wetland inventory should be consistent. For example, the first national wetland inventory covered all wetlands with an area more than or equal to 100 ha, while the second national wetland inventory investigated those wetlands with an area more than or equal to 8 ha.2,3 This difference in methodology may result in difficulties in data analysis and usage. Data on the ecological character of wetlands, the extent of wetland loss and degradation, conservation procedures, and the success of monitoring strategies are required to create a management planning procedure for legal implementation and enforcement. Hopefully, extensive wetland monitoring initiated by the 2011− 2015 Implementation Program for the NWCP will build a bridge between wetland science, policy, and management that will effectively promote the conservation of wetlands. A multidisciplinary, holistic, and integrated approach is imperative to achieve long-term sustainable wetland conservation and management in agricultural landscapes. Wetland conservation is a specialized technical and scientific field that involves numerous components including water management, fish and wildlife conservation, biodiversity conservation, socioeconomic issues, and community participation. Taking into consideration the complexity of the issues, these aspects need to be dealt with in a coordinated manner by managers having expertise in the relevant fields. Principles of ecoagriculture should become a fundamental base for agricultural communities to practice integrated and sustainable resource management for rice production.14 The key to the conflict is to bring rice production in compliance with wetland protection requirements so that the two can focus on mutually obtainable goals.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*Phone: 561-682-2186. Fax: 561-682-6051. E-mail: hchen@ sfwmd.gov. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The study was supported by the National Basic Research Program No. 2012CB956100 and the CAS/SAFEA International Partnership Program for Creative Research Teams No. KZZD-EW-TZ-07. The views presented in this paper are those of the authors, and the interpretation and conclusions do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency or the organizations that the authors work for. We thank M. Chimney and C. Palm for reviewing an earlier version of this manuscript.
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REFERENCES
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