Jilin province is rich in wetland resources with a wetland area of 1.728 million hectares, accounting for 9.2 percent of its total land area. Among them, 1.025 million hectares are natural wetlands, accounting for 59.3 percent of the province’s total wetland area. At present, there are 8 national important wetlands across the province, including Xianghai Wetland, Momoge Wetland, Songhua River Three-Lake Wetland, Chagan Lake Wetland, Dabusu Wetland, Moon Lake Wetland, Longzhao Wetland and Changbai Mountain Lava-plateau Marsh Wetland. Xianghai Wetland and Momoge Wetland were listed as the wetlands of international importance in 1992 and 2013 respectively. The main characteristics of wetlands in Jilin province are their multiple types, wide distribution, significant regional differences and rich biodiversity. There are 16 types of wetlands in the whole province, including 3 types of riverine wetlands, 3 types of lake wetlands, 6 types of marsh wetlands and 4 types of constructed wetlands. Changbai Mountain forest marsh wetlands and peat marsh wetlands mainly distribute in the eastern region of the province, lake wetlands distribute in the central region, as well as inland rivers and plain marsh wetlands distribute in the basins of Songhua River and Nenjiang River in the western region. There are 297 species of wetland wildlife in 59 families of 30 orders and 613 species of higher wetland plants in 253 genera of 112 families in the whole province, including 70 endangered species under key protection.
In recent years, under the leadership of the provincial Party committee, the provincial government and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, the joint efforts of local governments at all levels and relevant departments, as well as the support from all walks of life, Jilin province has achieved remarkable results in wetland protection and management, especially in the construction of laws and regulations, the establishment of protection and management systems, and the protection and restoration of wetlands.
Ⅰ. The construction of laws and regulations on wetland protection is improving day by day. Regulations of Jilin Province on Wetland Protection were officially promulgated and implemented on March 1, 2011, which would significantly contribute to the establishment of wetland protection and management system and the intensified efforts in wetland protection. The provincial government successively issued Regulations on the Administration of Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve, Regulations on the Administration of Songhua River Three-Lake Nature Reserve and Regulations on the Administration of Xianghai National Nature Reserve to promote the work of "one reserve, one law". The government also rolled out a decision to ban the hunting of terrestrial wildlife and compensation measures for personal injuries and property damage caused by wild terrestrial animals. On the basis of accomplishing the first ten-year goal of banning on hunting, the Jilin Provincial People's Congress made a decision on continued extension of the closed season. Especially at the beginning of this year, the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Department set the establishment of ecological compensation mechanism and long-term water supply mechanism as the key work, which has been fully affirmed and supported by the provincial government. In the NPC government work report and the environmental protection conference, Wang Rulin, then governor of Jilin province, clearly proposed to implement the two important mechanisms mentioned above in the whole province, which played an important role in promoting the development of wetland protection.
Ⅱ. The formulation of first ten-year plan of Jilin province for wetland protection is completed. The 3rd executive meeting of the provincial government officially approved the Wetland Protection Plan on March 3, 2012, which was another important event with great influence in the development history of wetland protection in the province. As a comprehensive and systematic guidance document, the plan will significantly boost the development of wetland conservation in a standardized and orderly manner.
Ⅲ. Take strong measures to carry out wetland protection and restoration projects. In view of the drought and low rainfall in western areas in most years and the seasonal water scarcity in wetlands, the Provincial Forestry and Grassland Department actively communicated and coordinated with the provincial government and relevant departments and raised funds in various ways to divert more than 600 million cubic meters of water to the Xianghai Wetland, the Momoge Wetland and other important wetlands to restore nearly 40,000 hectares of wetlands with the help of key river-lake connection projects. In particular, a total of 110 million cubic meters of emergency water was diverted to Xianghai in 2004 and 2011 from the Chaerson Reservoir which was 200 kilometers away, so as to effectively restore over 20,000 hectares of wetlands. There was a great deal of rain in 2013, and water from upper reaches of rivers covered another 158,000 hectares of wetlands in the western region, including 37,000 hectares in the Xianghai and Momoge nature reserves, reaching the best level in history. The wetland function has effectively restored, the ecological environment in the western region has greatly improved, and the number of wild animals and plants has significantly increased. Taking the Momoge National Nature Reserve as an example, the number of bird species has grown by 100 with an increase of nearly 50 percent compared with the time that when the reserve was built, and the number of white cranes making a stopover in the reserve has increased from 500 to more than 3,000, accounting for over 95 percent of the world population. The Momoge reserve has become the world’s largest five-star white crane station with the longest stopover time and the largest population number of white cranes, promoting China's position in the international protection of endangered birds and attracting the attention of international organizations.
In addition, the co-construction activity was launched to restore wetlands. The Momoge National Nature Reserve and PetroChina Jilin Oilfield jointly carried out a comprehensive restoration project of wetland vegetation in oil-producing regions. Up to now, an investment of 31.6 million yuan has been made to restore wetland vegetation area of 1.62 million square meters, properly resolving the conflict between protection and utilization. The demonstration project of tailwater treatment in paddy fields was launched. Momoge introduced German technology and made a bold attempt to utilize the tailwater resources of paddy fields with positive progress. The demonstration project of ecological relocation was launched in the Songhua Lake Wetland Reserve and Jingyue Wetland Park. A total investment of 1.4 billion yuan has been made to relocate nearly 510 billion people. With the support of national wetland subsidies, the wetland protection and ecological construction project was launched in the Xianghai Wetland and Hani Wetland with good results. The implementation of these projects has played an important role in the protection and restoration of important wetlands.
Ⅳ. Strengthen the construction of wetland protection and management system. The first is to enhance leadership in wetland protection and management. The provincial government issued a notice on strengthening protection and management of wetlands and established a coordinating & leading group for wetland protection with provincial vice-governor as the group leader and members from 12 government departments. In 2005, the provincial government took the lead in setting up an office of wetland protection and management. In August 2011, in accordance with the Regulations of Jilin Province on Wetland Protection, the provincial government established a wetland expert committee to absorb top wetland experts from research institutes and universities in the province and to provide scientific and technological support for wetland protection. Liu Xingtu, academician of the Northeast Institute of Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, served as the director of the committee. Another is to strengthen the construction of wetland protection system in key wetland distribution areas. The province government established wetland reserves and parks and set up special protection agencies in key wetland distribution areas. At present, there are 26 wetland reserves in the whole province, including 12 at the national level, 10 at the provincial level and 4 small-sized reserves, as well as 34 wetland parks, including 21 at the national level and 13 at the provincial level. 47 percent of natural wetlands across the province have been effectively protected.
Ⅴ. The pilot task of wetland resource inspection is comprehensively completed. According to the requirements of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Jilin province established a team and formulated a plan to completed the task of wetland resource inspection on time and to find out the province’s wetland resource base and protection status, laying a foundation for strengthening wetland protection and management.
Ⅵ. Give priority to protection and make rational use of wetland resources. Wetland is not only an important natural ecosystem, but also an important resource for economic and social development. In recent years, following the principle of active protection and rational utilization and relying on the advantages of its resources, Jilin province has carried out wetland eco-tourism, wetland breeding and planting, as well as mineral water development and has achieved good ecological, economic and social benefits. With Changbai Mountain, Longwan, three lakes of Songhua River, Xianghai, Momoge and Chagan Lake as the mainstay, wetland eco-tourism is developing in depth and width with an annual output value of 4.55 billion yuan, becoming a pillar industry of the economic and social development of the province. The annual output of high-quality mineral water represented by Quanyangquan has reached 300,000 tons. The aquaculture industry represented by fish and crab culture has kept growing with an annual output of 170,000 tons. With the launch of major water conservancy projects such as the Hadashan project and the Nenjiang River-Baicheng water diversion project, the area of reed fields has expanded with 100,000 hectares of new-built fields in three years. The research on the development mode of wetland agricultural circular economy has made a major breakthrough, which will lead to a new path of wetland economic development. A series of festival activities such as wetland bird watching, fishing and hunting culture and alpine flowers appreciation have formed to inherit the wetland culture and to promote the coordinated development of the regional economy.
Ⅶ. Wetland publicity and international exchanges and cooperation are launched extensively. Make full use of radio, television, newspapers, government websites and other media platforms, produce wetland protection special programs, invite government leaders and experts to give lectures on the basic knowledge of wetland protection, interpret relevant laws, regulations and policies of wetland protection, promote the importance of wetland protection, and carry out a variety of publicity and education activities to improve people’s awareness of wetland protection. The province has held various training sessions in different forms to effectively raise the professional quality and management level of wetland management personnel. Meanwhile, the province has also actively created conditions to carry out exchanges and cooperation with international conservation organizations such as the Wetland International (WI), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the International Crane Foundation (ICF) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and has launched research projects of white crane habitats and water resources management in the Xianghai Wetland and Momog Wetland with remarkable results.