China loses $31 bln a year to land reclamation

(ECNS) -- Intertidal pelitic zones, the habitat for migrant birds, are being increasingly encroached upon by projects related to industrial parks and airport construction.

The latest survey drawn up by multiple environmental organizations indicates that the Yellow Sea-Bohai Sea intertidal zone, a key migration channel from Eastern Asia to Australasia and an important origin of natural marine life, is vanishing.

As the most important component of coastal wetlands, intertidal zones boast the highest ecological value and largest bio-diversity. According to a survey report published by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2012, of all the eight bird migration routes in the world, the number of species threatened on the Eastern Asia-Australasia route is higher than that on the other seven routes.

According to a rough estimation report recently published by Let Migrant Birds Fly and other NGOs, land reclamation around the Bohai Sea has far exceeded 20 million sq km over the past two decades and is still increasing.

Tian Yangyang, a Let Migrant Birds Fly officer, said there are 16 intertidal zones critical for water bird diversity on the Eastern Asia-Australasia route, including three by the Bohai Sea, namely Liaodong Bay in the north, Bohai Bay in the west and Laizhou Bay in the south.

However, these key zones feature the most serious land reclamation threat and lowest reclamation cost.

China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED) estimated that land reclamation causes the loss of 188.8 billion yuan ($30.86 billion) a year in terms of the eco-service function of the ocean and coast, equivalent to about 6% of the country's total marine production value.

According to CCICED, the total area of land reclamation increased from 8,241 sq km in 1990 to 13,380 sq km in 2008, averaging an addition of 285 sq km per year. Statistics show that such land reclamation has decreased the coastal wetland area by a sharp 57 percent in China, causing many wetland bird species to have nowhere to rest or find food, the ocean and coastal wetland to lose their carbon sink function and the wetland's eco-service value to significantly diminish.

Uninhibited land reclamation has also made it hard to sustain fishing resources, while changes along the coastline have aggravated environmental pollution in close waters and severely impaired the capability of disaster prevention and mitigation along local coasts, exposing some coastal cities to huge safety risks.

Overwhelming land reclamation

Land reclamation in the Tianjin-Tangshan region has been overwhelming in recent years. Because of the pressure of population and economic growth in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea area, large parts of intertidal zones are turned into salt ponds, aquaculture farms, farmlands, recreational areas and industrial zones.

The journalist learnt through interviews that 313 sq km of intertidal zones were reclaimed to become salt ponds from 1974 to 1993 while about 450 sq km of sea areas were reclaimed for Tianjin's Binhai New Area and Caofeidian New Area from 1994 to 2010.

By 2010, 108 sq km of intertidal zones were reclaimed for Binhai New Area and 110 sq km for Caofeidian New Area. According to a plan, more reclamation will be carried out for these regions by 2020. Meanwhile, a large new industrial reclamation project has been launched in the Cangzhou-Binhai New Area, southwest of Bohai Bay, expected to reclaim at least 117 sq km of intertidal zones.

During above investigations, volunteers also found sea cucumber farming as a key reason for the disappearance of intertidal zones. According to Zhou Haixiang, huge profits have stimulated the rapid development of sea cucumber farming along the Bohai Sea coast, with such dammed farming severely harming intertidal zones. A 93 sq km sea cucumber farm in Pulandian, Dalian has already caused the complete disappearance of intertidal zones there.

Not included in the ecological red line, intertidal zones disappear at a fast pace.

"The most fundamental reason is that the plan for marine development hasn't included intertidal zones in the ecological red line," said Tian Yangyang.

On October 17, 2012 the State Oceanic Administration issued the Several Opinions on Establishing the Marine Ecological Red Line System in the Bohai Sea, which set forth to list the Bohai Marine Reserve and key coastal wetlands as "red line areas for marine ecology", and further divided them into "areas where development is prohibited" and "areas where development is restricted." Control measures were also formulated for different areas and categories according to their ecological characteristics.