Recently, CBCGDF issued "CBCGDF Requires Stopping Planting Ten Thousand Trees on the East Beach of Nanhui, Shanghai!" After asking the relevant departments to learn the article "Biodiversity Conservation of Ecological Civilization" on Wechat, the volunteers wrote to the relevant departments to reflect our article. The relevant departments said that it was rice planting trees, paddy fields planting trees, not wetland planting trees. We believe that planting trees in paddy fields is wrong, and planting trees artificially in Nanhui is also wrong. The reader's letter reflects the following:
In this regard, we strongly advocate that "returning farmland to forestry" is scientific and that Nanhui should "returning farmland to wetland"!
Biodiversity conservation includes three levels: gene, species, and habitat. Beach wetlands are habitats. Nanhui Dongtan is undoubtedly an endangered habitat.
In 2008, Nanhui Dongtan Wetland was recognized as an important bird area by the International Bird Union. In 2015, the number of birds monitored in Nanhui Dongtan was nearly 400,000, compared with 418,000 in 2016. At one time, more than one million birds were monitored in one year. Nanhui has recorded more than 85% of all bird species observed in Shanghai.
It's not just about birds. Why do beach wetlands have a large number of birds? And what's the food for these birds? Without wetlands, birds would be deprived of food. Beach wetland is an important part of marine life as well as the most endangered part of marine ecology (due to construction, including this afforestation). This is one of the most important aspects of biodiversity conservation.
In fact, this area has historically been a beach wetland. Over the past decade, Shanghai has occupied a large amount of ecological land in order to develop its economy. For example, an article in 2009 reported that 15,000 saline-alkali in Nanhui Dongtan had achieved the results of "Sea has changed into a mulberry orchard". According to the report in 2012, the construction area of Nanhui Dongtan Project is about 116,000, which is the largest project in the soft soil coastal zone. Paddy fields have been recovered over the past two years and now trees are being planted. Nanhui Dongtan Wetland has been seriously damaged. Over the past years, a large number of fields have been continuously developed. The State Council issued a new policy to ban it until 2018.
We strongly oppose that "planting trees in rice, paddy fields, not in wetlands", which is said by relevant departments. Planting trees in paddy fields are also wrong. It is a fundamental mistake to carry out large-scale artificial planting in Nanhui, which violates the basic meaning of ecological civilization. It is strongly recommended that the relevant departments in Shanghai study seriously the protection of ecological civilization. And they also need to correct this wrong practice before the United Nations Decade of Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030).
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/8035.html
By / Li Xue