The Making of an Eco-city

By LU RUCAI & JIANG SHAOHUA

IN the past, people joked that the telegraph poles outnumbered the trees in Dongying, but now the situation has changed," said Duan Lihong, an official with Shandong Development and Reform Commission. However, Duan said candidly that it was only in recent years that the local government and people gave serious thought to environmental protection.

Rebirth of the Wetlands

Wetlands of a large scale appeared around the Yellow River estuary after the river changed its course in the mid-19th century. They are regarded by the people in Dongying as one of nature's great blessings.

This is the youngest wetland ecosystem in China, but the most extensive, covering an area of 153,000 hectares. Since the 1980s, experts from home and abroad have explored every inch of it, coming away with some interesting observations. Thanks to their expert advice, in 1990 Dongying decided to establish a nature reserve to protect the unique wetlands of the Yellow River Delta. Two years later, the State Council elevated it to the national nature reserve list.

In the middle and latter part of the 1990s, due to a drop in the Yellow River's water level, the wetlands shrank and the environment deteriorated. Dongying had to conduct water and sand regulation to restore and protect the ecology of the environment.

"At present the nature reserve is well balanced. There are 1,555 varieties of wild fauna, including 296 species of birds, accounting for 21 percent of the total bird varieties of China," said Shan Kai, deputy chief of the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve's scientific research station. He adds, "There are 10 species of bird under national category-one protection, such as the red-crowned crane and hooded crane, which amounts to 23 percent of the nation's stock. Moreover, each year over six million migratory birds pass through the reserve."

After graduating from the China University of Petroleum in 1997, Shan Kai chose to work there in bird observation and environmental monitoring. Working jointly with 11 other colleagues, he has witnessed a remarkable increase in both variety and number of birds in the reserve. According to Shan, from 1991 to now the bird variety went up from 187 to 296. The breeds of bird under national category-one protection doubled from 5 to 10, and category-two nationally protected breeds from 27 to 49.

Bird-watchers Unite

"I can distinguish the variety of any bird soaring in the reserve," Shan challenged proudly. After working here for 12 years, he has become an expert bird-watcher.

By virtue of its success at protecting the new wetland ecosystem and its endangered birds, the reserve has been approved to join the "China Biosphere Reserve Network," the "East Asian-Australasian Shorebird Site Network" and the "Network of North East Asia for Crane and Stork Conservation."

The food supply areas, first-aid and breeding center there provide food and medical treatment to migratory birds. Each year there are about 150 birds receiving timely aid. "People in Dongying are highly aware of the mission, call us with sightings of injured birds, and of course provide us with many clues we need to find and rescue them. Sometimes they bring injured birds in," said Shan.

To cultivate in children a respect and reverence for nature, staff from the research station will regularly visit elementary and secondary schools to explain and illustrate the importance of environmental protection. The reserve has also set up a bird-watchers society and enrolled members nationwide. An organized bird-watching expedition is mounted annually to enhance public awareness and demonstrate how ecological preservation can be entertaining and educational.

To improve the soil and encourage vegetation of the land newly-formed by silt deposits each year, the reserve has built dams. Now recovered wetland occupies about 12,000 hectares, with 55.1 percent of it "green." About 93 hectares of farmland in the reserve have also been converted into wetlands, with the cost of repurchase exceeding RMB 10 million.

"The biggest challenge we face is the water supply to support this environment," said Shan. The method of choice now is to divert freshwater when the Yellow River's volume flow rate is high, guaranteeing for most of the year the water needed for a healthy wetlands ecology.

Dongying has just budgeted over RMB 60 billion for the next decade of wetlands protection and extension. According to the plan, nine tourism functional areas, such as a leisure resort zone and bird observatory, will be built in 2015. "The current annual volume of visitors is just over 100,000 people, and it is expected to round off at about 1.1 million each year," said Shan. "But how to balance tourism development and wetlands protection is a big concern."

Ecological Thought

Dongying increased its investment in environmental protection a few years ago. In 2002, its five projects for environmental revival absorbed RMB 1.6 billion, and those include sewage and domestic rubbish disposal, wetland maintenance and restoration, agricultural water and soil conservation, and dam construction. Recycled water has altered the pond, paddy and reed fields into burgeoning tourist attractions.

To further illustrate the "value-added" use of wetlands conservation, Dongying has built the Mingyue Lake National Urban Wetland Park based on the Yellow River Delta Nature Reserve. This links the water system circulation inside and outside the city, achieving the biological purification of urban water.

Besides these infrastructure changes, Dongying has constantly made efforts to restore vegetation to the salt marshes of the Yellow River Estuary. "In the past, the technology wasn't up to it, it was just too hard to reclaim salt-affected land," said Yang Yuzhen, director of Yellow River Delta Protection and Development Research Center. "After introducing drainage techniques from the Netherlands, today we have transformed nearly 7,000 hectares of barren coastal mudflats into grain fields."

The PLA Jinan Military Area Command established its Yellow River Delta Production Base in Dongying in 1963, initially as an army horse ranch. Efforts to extend vegetation coverage in the area started at the very beginning of the project, and the focus shifted to grain field conversion and water conservancy in the 1980s. Now the base runs about 71,300 hectares, and is staffed by approximately 7,000 people.

The greening work has received particular attention in recent years. "Woodlands and rangelands have increased from 6,000 hectares in 2003 to the present 29,000 hectares. Even in unreclaimed salt marsh, there is no bare soil," said Liu Changbao, director of the afforestation management center of the production base. "Everyone in the base participates in greening work; it has become a tradition."

To cope with the infestation of fall webworm, significant in the last few years, the base built the largest biological control station in Shandong Province. "One fall webworm can reproduce 100 million in one year, bringing about tremendous destruction to forest and crops," Liu informed us. "Luckily it has a natural enemy – a kind of chalcid named Chouioia cunea Yang." The beekeeping division of the station has an annual production of 1.2 million eggs, and each egg can breed 5,000 chalcids. "Now the base's forest is free of the fall webworm," said Liu, satisfied with his achievement. The base sells the chalcid eggs at 3.5 yuan per egg, and its market has stretched over the whole province. Liu justified the relatively steep investment this way, "In the short term, the cost of biological prevention is higher than chemical control, but in the long run, the result is no less than the recovery of ecological harmony."

The concept and the techniques of natural control have won the support of Dongying's municipal government, and attracted others to the operation to observe and learn. To encourage more awareness, the production base has established a large ecologically-managed orchard, and is planning an ecological tour route that crosses rivers and passes through forests on its estate.

It isn't all a matter of this ideal being realized sometime in the future; practical decisions are already being made in support of nature. For instance, there were some windmills in the city that were found to disturb peace in bird habitats; consequently those facilities were shut down. "Past experience has taught Dongying people that mankind cannot achieve wellbeing without due respect for other creatures," concluded Wang Ping, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the Dongying Municipal People's Government.