North China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has put 33 wetlands covering 2.45 million hectares under protection, about 57.7 percent of the region's total wetlands.

"The central government has earmarked 41.11 million yuan (US$5.1 million) for the construction of the region's wetland reserves, and regional legislators are drafting protection regulations to prevent further deterioration of the wetlands," said Qun Li, an official with the region's forestry department.

Inner Mongolia boasts 4.25 million hectares of wetlands, about 3.7 percent of the region's land area, or the third most in China. The region's Dalai Lake Wetlands and Ordos Relict Gull Wetlands have been listed as being world significant.

Qun said the region's 3.1 million hectares of marshes have a water storage capacity equivalent to about 100 large-sized reservoirs.

"The region's wetlands protection lags far behind of the protection of grasslands and the prevention on soil erosion," said Zhang Chengbin, vice-director of the Inner Mongolia Association on Sand Control and Management.

Zhang said in the past decades, over-exploration of groundwater and excessive land reclamation have shrunk the wetlands. For example Juyan Lake, a rare wetland located in the desert of west Inner Mongolia's Alxa League has dried up due to improper development. It is now known as the birthplace of many of China's sandstorms.

Statistics from the State Forestry Administration (SFA) in 2004 showed China had 38.48 million hectares of wetlands, the largest in Asia and the fourth largest in the world.

To date, China has established 473 wetland protection areas and put 45 percent of the country's natural wetlands under protection. About 9 billion yuan (US$1.125 billion) will be allocated in the next five years to save wetlands from shrinking, according to the SFA.

(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2006)