CBCGDF Volunteers Report on Disguised Eco-restoration: Digging in Zhanghe National Wetland Park
2021/4/21 14:03:00 本站

One river spans two provinces. Once its scenery was picturesque, and it is also an important transfer station on the part of middle line of The East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership in China. However, the Henan Anyang Zhanghe Canyon National Wetland Park has been devastated within a short period of time: first, sand was dug on the Handan side, and then the Water Conservancy Bureau of Yindu District, Anyang City has sold the sand and gravel of the 4.878 km river section to another company in disguise under the pretext of ecological restoration since October 2020.

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As a result, from the end of last year to the present, the Zhanghe canyon has been enveloped in dust, and hundreds of trucks have been continuously and crazily digging sand every day. "Now you can't even see the palm-sized stones" in this section of the Zhanghe River on both sides of the river, which makes the CBCGDF volunteers extremely distressed.

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The Park is located in Anyang, Henan, surrounded by low mountains on the eastern foot of the Taihang Mountains. Its wetland types are mainly river wetlands and also include some plain wetlands. The Park was established mainly because of the unique natural ecosystem formed by the Zhanghe River passing through the canyon for thousands of years.

In December 2019, the Park was formally established after the acceptance and confirmation of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. The Park extends along the canyon, with a total length of 18 kilometers, a total planned area of 646.38 hectares (roughly 6.46 square kilometers), and a wetland covering rate of 35.48%. “This is an international migration channel for migratory birds. The most famous bird species of the canyon is the black stork. When the migratory season comes, there are so many migratory birds that can block the river.” CBCGDF Volunteers pay much attention to this wetland park, as well as to the species in it.

 In January 2020, CBCGDF volunteers in Anyang noticed that a large number of operating vehicles were digging sand and quarrying in Handan on the other bank of the Zhang River Canyon. “It was mainly to use excavators to smash the large and small rocks scattered on the riverbank and tow them away”, the volunteers said. because it was also the winter season for migratory birds, volunteers observed that the black stork population resting here was disturbed by the excavation of sand and gravel, standing and looking around in panic on the river rock pile  and unable to find food. According to volunteer observations, the sand quarrying on the Handan side continued to the upper reaches of the Zhang River, creating a completely different landscape on both sides of the Zhanghe River.

"At that time, I was angry that the other side of the river did not protect the wetland and destroyed the habitat, but I was secretly grateful that the canyon on the Anyang side has been spared," the volunteer said. But unpredictably, in March this year, CBCGDF volunteers once again discovered that the sand of the Zhanghe Canyon on the side of Anyang had also been dug. Trucks were hauling a large amount of sand and gravel out of the riverbed every day. According to the CBCGDF volunteers during their on-site visit, there are five sand mining areas in the 25-kilometer section of the Zhanghe Canyon from Tianjiazui Village to Aikou Village on the side of Anyang, two of which are in the provincial nature reserve, others are within the wetland park. "These rampant diggers respect no law. In addition, manual water diversion beams have been built in the canyon to divert the water from the bottom of the canyon." The volunteers were worried that if this goes on, the beautiful and abundant wetland will dry up completely.

Who is openly excavating river sand on a large scale and destroy the National Wetland Park?

What disturbed the volunteers was that on April 11, Zhang Jinhe, a native of Dulixiajie Village, Duli Town, Yindu District, Anyang City, posted that he had registered and established Anyang Longtan Villa Ecotourism Co., Ltd. in 2009, which was renamed Anyang Jinhe Eco-tourism Co., Ltd. in 2013. In 2009, The company signed a contract with the Nanyangcheng Village Committee of Duli Town to develop and use Nanshan and Zhanghe Rivers, with an annual payment of 6,000 yuan to the committee and a duration of 70 years until 2079. The specific contracted land is: west of Zhanghe River to Xishigou Village; east to Xiaikou village boundary; north to Beiyangcheng village boundary, east to Nanshan to Xiaozhaidi; west to Dingtouxuan; south to Dazhaiding, Watershed; north to Evergreen Mountain by the river.

That means part of the land was suspected to have been contracted when Zhanghe Canyon National Wetland Park was established in 2019. In October 2020, Zhang Jinhe discovered that the rafting resort set up by his company in the Zhanghe Canyon was demolished by a company called Henan Hengyu Water Conservancy Engineering Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Henan Hengyu) without any greeting. Zhang Jinhe stated that “(Henan Hengyu) used violence many times during the demolition process” and “caused multiple mental and physical injuries to himself and his friends.” In response, Zhang Jinhe made a public report.

In the contract No. YDSL001 signed by the Water Conservancy Bureau of Yindu District and Henan Hengyu announced by Zhang Jinhe, it was clearly stated that the Water Conservancy Bureau of Yindu District, as the contracting letting party, will transfer the about 322,500 cubic meters of waste materials in ecological restoration to Henan Hengyu and confirmed that the company was the winning bidder with an auction price of 9.675 million yuan. The planned construction period is from October 20, 2020 to June 20, 2021. The ecological restoration project consists of three purposes: river integration, bank leveling, and bank greening.

"The so-called waste materials should be the waste stones generated after the river leveling and the completion of ecological restoration projects. However, according to the present condition of the project, Henan Hengyu has not carried out any ecological restoration projects at all, and there is no construction signboard and other information that should be publicized according to the law.” “Obviously this is a dual contracts and deception, stealing sand and gravel in the canyon." According to the locals, after getting the contract, Henan Hengyu excavated directly, transporting rocks out of the Zhanghe Canyon day and night, digging a large number of river channels; the excavation places were tens of meters to hundreds of meters wide and 3-7 meters deep. The local people tried to stop the excavation, and many cases of beating were reported. "In order to avoid injuries, the policemen were also on duty day and night in the canyon." The locals revealed that until mid-to-late April, the Zhanghe Canyon was still being excavated and heavy vehicles were pulled into the river every day. There were more than 1,000 vehicles, queuing in long lines and seriously damaging the nearby rural roads.

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"Because of the floods for many years, there were huge rocks on both sides of the canyon, and the wetland scenery is very unique. After two years of tossing, the rivers on both sides of the canyon are now flat, and there are not many fist-sized stones. They are about to be hollowed out." The CBCGDF volunteers are heartbroken. According to their understanding, apart from the nearly 5-km section currently being excavated by Henan Hengyu, the entire 30-km-long Zhanghe Canyon has four other operating sections, all of which are racing to dig sand, including a Hebei enterprise, two Hunan companies and one Handan company, which claimed they had been authorized by the government. Locally, the market price of a large truck of sand and gravel is about 2,000 yuan.

"If the excavation continues, let alone migratory birds migrating, I'm afraid that even the foothold of the migratory birds will be gone. It is a national wetland park, but how can they be so arrogant and blatant in robbing and digging? In desperation, the CBCGDF volunteers even hoped to open a public interest lawsuit to protect the Zhanghe Canyon wetlands. In our country, Wetland Protection Law is under revision. CBCGDF hopes that the local authorities will find out the facts as soon as possible and stop such illegal acts as destruction of wetlands.


Translator/He Qianqian  Proofreader/ YX


Original Chinesea article

https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/1lewdBw0vJKeXYuEVXQ63A


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https://www.paypal.me/CBCGDFChina

http://www.cbcgdf.org/English/ConfirmDonaTion/0.html