Abstract
Natural wetland areas in China have experienced a continuous decline over the past two decades, which is partly due to the lack of comprehensive wetland protection laws and regulations. Despite investing over 4.24 billion USD in wetland conservation and restoration since 2000, the deterioration of wetlands persists. This study reviews the development of global wetland protection laws and regulations, analyzes the progress of wetland legislation in China and explores the impact of economic development levels on wetland protection legislation, while also providing an in-depth interpretation of the core elements of the ‘Wetland Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China’. The results indicate that since the late 1940s, wetland protection laws and regulations have begun to emerge, with most developed countries gradually implementing related policies between the 1980s and 1990s; about 71% of wetland protection laws are concentrated in 29 countries, while 69 countries still lack specific wetland protection laws. An analysis of 962 global documents reveals that wetland protection legislation mainly focuses on the protection of water resources, species and ecosystems. China’s wetland legislation started late, with the ‘Wetland Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China’ being officially implemented only in June 2022. Furthermore, the study points out that economic development plays a crucial role in wetland legislation worldwide. Lastly, the article summarizes the key features of the ‘Wetland Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China’, including the improvement of the environmental protection legislative system, increased penalties for illegal occupation of wetlands, clearer protection goals and the assurance of the integrity and connectivity of wetland ecosystems through stringent policies.
摘要
过去20年间，中国的自然湿地面积持续缩减，这在某种程度上与缺乏全面的湿地保护法律法规有关。尽管自2000年起，中国已经在湿地保护和修复上投入了逾42.4亿美元，但湿地的退化问题依然存在。本研究综述了全球湿地保护法律法规的发展，分析了中国湿地立法的进展，同时探讨了经济发展水平对湿地保护立法的影响，并深入解读了《中华人民共和国湿地保护法》的核心要点。研究发现，自20世纪40年代末以来，湿地保护法律法规开始出现，大多数发达国家在1980到1990年代开始逐步实施相关政策；全球约71%的湿地保护法集中在29个国家，而有69个国家还没有专门的湿地保护法。通过分析全球收集的962份文档显示，湿地保护立法中主要关注在水资源、物种以及生态系统保护等方面。中国湿地立法启动较晚，直至2022年6月才正式实施《中华人民共和国湿地保护法》。此外，研究指出，经济发展在全球范围内的湿地立法起到了关键作用。最后，本文总结了《中华人民共和国湿地保护法》的关键特点，包括环境保护立法体系的完善、加大对非法占用湿地的处罚力度、更明确的保护目标以及通过严格政策保证湿地生态系统的完整性和连通性。
INTRODUCTION
Wetlands contribute to human welfare and ecological security locally and globally. Healthy wetlands provide water, food and multiple ecological functions such as flood storage and drought prevention, and climate regulation (Cheng et al. 2020; Li et al. 2021; Mulder et al. 2020). Thus, wetland protection is one of the foundations for sustainable economic and social development (Chen et al. 2019). Yet wetlands are one of the most threatened ecosystems around the world and in China (Pimm et al. 2014; Xu et al. 2019). Therefore, understanding legislative instruments to protect wetlands globally and in China is an important question to explore for sustainable management of wetlands.
Global wetland legislation has evolved significantly over recent decades, reflecting a growing awareness of the vital role wetlands play in ecological balance and human well-being (Davidson et al. 2019). Key international agreements, such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, have been instrumental in guiding global wetland conservation efforts (Ramsar Convention Secretariat 2018). Since China announced to protect wetlands officially in 2000, Chinese government has invested over 4.24 billion USD on wetland protection and restoration projects (State Council of PRC 2016). By 2020, Chinese National Wetland Conservation System includes 64 Ramsar Sites, 602 National Wetland Nature Reserves, 899 National Wetland Parks and thousands of wetland protected sites. Now, the total conserved area of natural wetlands is over 27 million ha. However, with such investment and vast area of wetlands to preserve, China urgently needs special law toward wetland protection (He 2019; Mao et al. 2018; Zhou et al. 2021).
According to the 2nd National Wetland Inventory Report by National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China (NFGA), the total estimated wetland area in China was 53.42 million ha and the natural wetland area was 46.67 million ha by 2013 (https://www.forestry.gov.cn/c/www/sdgjdt/545340.jhtml). Compared to 2003, the total and natural wetland areas reduced by 3.4 million ha and 3.38 million ha, respectively. From 2003 to 2013, Chinese government invested over 62 million USD and restored 0.2 million ha of wetlands. Besides, Chinese government also established 429 National Wetland Parks in 2013 from none in 2003. The net loss of wetlands during this period was mainly caused by two reasons: (i) rapid economic development and city expansion that overconsumed wetland resources; and (ii) unsustainable and destructive utilization of wetlands that can hardly be limited nor punished without laws (Liu et al. 2019; Mao et al. 2018).
In 2016, the General Office of the State Council issued the ‘Framework on Wetland Conservation and Restoration System’ (GOSCI 2016, No. 89). In 2017, the report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to ‘strengthen the conservation and restoration of wetlands’ (NFGA 2018). Since 2018, China’s ‘Number one central document’ of the government sets requirements for wetland conservation each year. All these measures demonstrate the Chinese government’s commitment to continuing wetland conservation and increasing investment in the following decades. However, to ensure effective wetland protection and avoid mistakes, China requires specialized laws dedicated to wetland preservation. These laws should be problem-oriented, addressing current issues in wetland protection practices while also promoting comprehensive wetland conservation. As of June 2022, the special Wetland Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China was officially implemented. This marks the first time that China has enacted specific legislation solely for the protection of wetlands, ushering in a new era for wetland conservation in the country.
In the present study, we collected 962 wetland legislations (including laws, regulations and miscellaneous documents) from around the world and analyzed the legislative processes as well as the evolution of themes related to protected objects. Our objectives were to (i) identify global legislative processes and protected objects, (ii) analyze the influence of socio-economic factors on wetland legislation and (iii) highlight the provisions of the newly issued Wetland Protection Law of the People’s Republic of China.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data source
The database of wetland legislation developed and presented in this article is derived from ECOLEX (www.ecolex.org), a collection of over 160 000 international, national and local environmental policies, including laws, regulations and miscellaneous provisions on wetlands (Kanter et al. 2020). Funded by the Dutch government and managed by IUCN’s Environmental Law Center, ECOLEX stands as the largest online database of environmental laws globally. It serves as the most comprehensive and valuable resource for the purposes of the current study. Our search specifically focused on the ‘legislation’ category, excluding treaties, treaty decisions, jurisprudence and legal literature. Moreover, we narrowed our focus to only include legislations that are currently in force. Each legislation record contains information such as country, year, subject, key words and policy abstract. Most of the text is accessible online, and we downloaded all available legislations (692 out of 962 records in total) for content analysis. Additionally, the gross domestic product (GDP) data for all countries are sourced from the National Bureau of Statistics of China (www.stats.gov.cn), while the wetland area data are obtained from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration of China (www.forestry.gov.cn).
Analysis
First, we undertook a comparison of the number, start year and legislations designed to protect wetlands around the world. Additionally, we conducted China’s GDP at the time of releasing its first legislation for wetland protection with that of other countries. Over time, due to changes in socio-economic and ecological environments, the protected objects by wetland legislation have also evolved. We analyzed the thematic evolution of the legislation to identify any aspects that may have been overlooked in China’s past wetland protection efforts.
To facilitate our analysis, we categorized the wetland protection themes into 14 distinct categories based on the information provided by ECOLEX and the accessible full texts. These categories include agriculture, air pollution, cultivated plants, energy, fisheries, food, forestry, hazardous substances, land and soil, livestock, mineral resources, sea species and ecosystems and water. Furthermore, we examined the changes in wetland areas from 2003 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2020, and established connections between these changes and wetland legislations, as well as other potential influencing factors in China, such as GDP and population.
Finally, to offer insights into the new Chinese legislation, we compared its content with that of other countries’ legislation, highlighting the noteworthy aspects of this newly issued law.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Global legislative process for wetland protection
We identified 962 wetland legislations currently in force across 197 countries, encompassing laws, regulations and miscellaneous documents. Remarkably, only 29 countries have 10 or more legislations dedicated to wetland protection (Fig. 1), and the total number of wetland protection legislations within these 29 countries amounts to 657. This concentration signifies that approximately 71% of the legislations are found in these 29 countries, leaving 69 countries without any legislation specifically addressing wetland protection as of yet. Among the 962 legislative documents, 258 are laws, 677 are regulations and 27 fall under the category of miscellaneous documents, including agreements (Fig. 1).
Time and type of legislative development for wetland protection in 29 countries.
Legislation to protect wetlands started in the late 1940s, with most developed countries gradually releasing related policies in the 1980s and 1990s. As the shrinkage of wetland areas and ecological degradation became increasingly severe on a global scale, the need for specialized legislations to ensure their conservation and management became evident. As of 2021, there were only 258 special wetland protection laws, accounting for less than 26.81% of the total legislations worldwide. Most of these legislations were in the form of regulations, making up 70.37% of the total.
China joined the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1992 and issued its first wetland-related legislation in 1994. By that time, more than 20 countries had already implemented legislations to protect wetlands. Currently, China has established 45 provincial regulations for wetland protection, and the Wetland Protection Law, which came into effect on 1 June 2022, marks a significant milestone in China’s efforts.
Among the 962 policies analyzed, we identified 14 themes based on the protected objects and contents (note that a policy may involve more than one theme). Example themes include water, species and ecosystems and sea, among others. Throughout the evolution of wetland policies over the years, water (477) and species and ecosystems (625) have consistently been the two dominant themes (Fig. 2). Protection of water resources and conservation of wetland species and ecosystems are recognized as the most vital and prevalent themes. However, with the advancement of wetland conservation, the themes addressed in wetland legislation have become more diverse and comprehensive.
Temporal trends of theme evolution (objects and contents) of legislations to protect wetland across the globe and in China.
In China, wetland legislation commenced in 1994 with a focus on species and ecosystem protection, overlooking other themes until 2000 when the NGFA released the ‘Plan of Wetland Protection’. Despite this progress, China’s legislation remained incomplete, covering only 8 out of the 14 themes. Notably, species and ecosystems, along with water, have been emphasized in almost every legislation, with 86 such inclusions accounting for 70.49% of the total number of themes. However, some other critical themes such as sea, land and soil and hazardous substances were scarcely addressed in any legislative documents prior to June 2022.
Given China’s wide variety of wetlands, constituting approximately 10 percent of the world’s wetland area, the newly issued wetland law aims to encompass a more comprehensive coverage of wetland themes.
The relationship between the wetland legislation and social–economic development
Developed countries initiated wetland legislation earlier than developing countries due to their higher GDP. As illustrated in Fig. 3, economic development plays a significant role in driving the commencement of wetland legislation. In China’s case, the wetland legislation process began when its GDP was approximately 394.57 billion dollars, and the GDP per capita was only about 344 dollars. Around 78.57% of countries initiated wetland legislations when their GDP was below 300 billion dollars, while only 89.29% of countries did so when their GDP per capita reached 400 dollars. It is reasonable to assume that countries tend to initiate environmental conservation, including wetland legislations, only when their level of productivity development reaches a certain threshold. China’s relatively late start in economic development has constrained the progress in establishing wetland-related legislative provisions.
GDP and GDP per capita (in USD) when the first wetland protection legislation was enacted across countries.
However, the Chinese government made efforts to conserve wetlands at a relatively early stage of its accelerated economic development, and the speed of its response was considered timely. Nevertheless, the issue remained that China did not have a special law dedicated to wetland protection until June 2022. This lack of specific legislation resulted in compromises in wetland conservation for the sake of other economic activities, such as expanding cultivable land, urban development and resource industry development. Moreover, the insufficient legal protection of wetlands made it challenging to effectively penalize illegal wetland occupation and utilization during the process of economic development.
The 18th National Congress of China in 2013 announced China’s ecological civilization would be a long-term vital strategy for environmental protection and the country’s modernization (Jiang and Xu 2019; Meng et al. 2021; Xie et al. 2021). Thus, we divide last two decades into two periods from 2003 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2022—for analytical purpose. Following this shift in long-term environmental protection strategy, we present the relationship between wetland area and GDP, population, as well as the wetland area of each province (Fig. 4).
Comparison of China’s wetland protection effort with or without legislations across the provinces.
By 2013, only 11 provinces issued wetland legislation, and the wetland area in seven provinces increased while three of them decreased. By 2022, almost all the provinces released provincial wetland regulations and no more wetland area shrinking recorded. There is no significant linear correlation between the change in wetland area and the existence of provincial wetland legislation, neither GDP changes nor population changes. While in some specific cases, legislation seems necessary and effective for wetland protection. Hebei province, as an example, conserved 108.19 million ha wetland in 2003 and the area decreased to 94.19 million—when the province released wetland protection legislation on 22 September 2013. The GDP and population changes kept a stable pace during both periods. Similar situations were also occurred in Jiangxi and Shandong Provinces. So, the wetland legislation has restrained the reduction of wetland areas to a certain extent.
However, the relationship between wetland protection efforts and wetland protection legislation seems chaotic. The effectiveness of provincial regulations alone in safeguarding wetland ecosystems appears insufficient. Moreover, while the loss of total wetland area seems to have halted from 2016 to 2020 after the strategy shift, natural wetlands are still being lost and replaced by newly constructed artificial wetlands. However, artificial wetlands cannot fully replace the ecological functions of natural wetlands (Xu et al. 2019), indicating that the situation of wetland protection in China remains challenging and complex. This further underscores the importance of China’s national-level release of wetland protection legislation in June 2022, in response to practical needs and global trends. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of this legislation is yet to be determined and will require close observation.
Highlight of wetland law in China
Wetland Protection Law consolidates Chinese legislation system for environmental protection
There are four hierarchies in China’s legal system: Constitution (Constitution of the People’s Republic of China), Laws, Administrative regulations and Local regulations. Until 1 June 2022, China only had administrative regulations and local regulations for wetland protection, which meant that wetland protection was in conflict with other activities protected by law. Before June 2022, wetland protection legislation was only promulgated in the form of provincial (or departmental) regulations.
Over the past 30 years, the natural wetlands in national nature reserves in China have experienced a net reduction of 815 247 ha in area. The majority of this decline occurred in marsh wetlands, followed by lakes. Remarkably, 79% of national wetland nature reserves had poor protection provisions, primarily concentrated in the Yangtze River Basin, East China’s coastal wetlands, Sanjiangyuan wetland area and the southwest river system (Lin and Yu 2018; Mao et al. 2018). Consequently, the severe situation of wetland protection calls for further strengthening of the relevant legal system (Jiang and Xu 2019).
Looking at the practices in other countries, wetland protection and management legislation are integrated into the national environmental laws in the form of special laws. For instance, after South Korea joined the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, they swiftly released the ‘Wetland Protection Law’ and the ‘Marine Ecological Management Law’, which became central to their legal system (Lee et al. 2022). Additionally, the legal department in South Korea launched and developed ‘Production of Comprehensive Biological Resources’ protection policies, including the Protection Plan and the Plan for the Protection of Wetland Reserves (Jang et al. 2022). In just 10 years, the number of coastal wetland reserves in South Korea increased to 10, covering an area of 21 815 ha, accounting for 8.6% of the total coastal wetland area (Han et al. 2021; Hong et al. 2010; Im et al. 2020). Similarly, in Europe, European Union countries consider the EU’s European Water Resources Framework Act and the European Framework for Nature Conservation as the core of the legal system for wetland protection and management, and they utilize the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance as the direct basis for domestic law and a supplemental mechanism (Serrano and Valbuena 2020). The EU has a unified and coordinated wetland protection and management legal system, with high-level special legislation in individual countries (Francés et al. 2017; Hering et al. 2010; O’Connor et al. 2021).
China’s focus on wetlands and the intensity of their protection have been demonstrated to varying degrees since China acceded to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands in 1992. Various initiatives were taken, including the ‘National Wetland Protection Project Plan’ compiled by nine departments, including the NFGA, in 2003, and the promulgation of the ‘Regulations on Wetland Protection and Management’ by the NFGA in March 2013, marking the first national-level departmental regulations on wetland protection in China. However, these were merely regulatory documents at the central government level and lacked legal effect. The absence of legal provisions resulted in unclear powers and responsibilities among the many wetland management departments, leading to inaction or difficulties in taking action.
The departmental regulations issued by the NFGA have proven inadequate in comprehensively guiding the practice of wetland protection and management. China’s wetland protection management system’s numerous wetland management departments with unclear specific powers and responsibilities can easily lead to chaos in management. For instance, meadow wetlands are managed by the agricultural department, swamp wetlands by the forestry department, river wetlands by the water conservancy department and urban lake wetlands by the urban construction department. Due to the lack of applicable binding force, these departments still need to comply with the provisions of national laws and regulations. The absence of high-level national legislation has also hindered the establishment of relevant wetland protection systems in local legislation. While there is a high number of local wetland protection regulations and rules, they lack a basis in higher law, resulting in uncertainties regarding the division of responsibility for protection, the establishment of protection agencies, the implementation of protection funds, as well as ecological compensation and land use control. The ‘Regulations on Wetland Protection and Management’ proposed a centralized responsibility for forestry authorities to organize, coordinate, guide and supervise wetland protection, but due to hierarchy differences, it has been challenging to be adopted by higher-level laws. Furthermore, local legislation has attempted innovative institutional arrangements for wetland protection but often struggles to implement them due to the lack of a basis in higher-level laws. Additionally, in the actual work of wetland protection, local wetland protection management departments are not only constrained by insufficient legal authorization and vague institutional arrangements in terms of supervision authority but also restricted by a multi-department management mechanism.
Financial punishment will stop the unauthorized occupation of wetlands
Wetland resources hold strong ecological, economic and social values, but they are inherently vulnerable to human production activities, easily destroyed and difficult to restore (Niu et al. 2011). Legal responsibility for protecting wetlands is a crucial aspect of wetland legislation, and China urgently needs to address the legal responsibility for wetlands to increase the severity of punishment for destroying wetlands.
In the past, provincial legislations lacked the authority to confiscate property or hold individuals accountable for illegal wetland occupation due to their low hierarchy and outdated clauses. Some provincial regulations also failed to clearly identify the legal responsibility of wetland destroyers. For example, the ‘Regulations on the Protection of Wetlands in Hunan Province’, promulgated by the Standing Committee of the Hunan Provincial People’s Congress in 2005, contained only three provisions concerning legal liability, which were incomplete and did not adequately address pollution prevention and protection of natural resources. The regulations mainly focused on administrative liability, with only one article (Article 29) related to the responsibilities of government employees. These regulations were not in line with the current economic development and lacked a solid legal basis. The insufficient legal basis can lead to lenient law enforcement and inadequate investigation of violations. Research has suggested that the punishment should be proportionate to the extent of damage inflicted on wetlands (Maron et al. 2018), and China should increase the severity of punishment for wetland destruction in its legislation. Considering China’s current economic development and per capita consumption level, the minimum standard of punishment should be elevated to effectively deter wetland destruction.
To effectively protect wetlands, other measures should also be employed in addition to increasing the severity of punishment for destruction. Detaining the destroyers, ordering enterprises to suspend production and business, and revoking the business licenses of offending enterprises are among the additional measures that can be taken.
According to the new wetland protection law, the penalties for unauthorized occupation of wetlands for activities such as aquaculture and construction of entertainment facilities will be several times the potential profits gained. The severity of punishment varies depending on the specific behaviors. For actions directly destroying wetland areas and functions without authorization, such as wetland reclamation and unauthorized construction on wetlands, the actors will be ordered to cease such destructive behavior, and all illegal income will be confiscated (Stokstad 2005). The fines will be based on the area of wetland destroyed, the difficulty of wetland restoration, the time required for restoration and the cost of restoration. For continuous destruction of wetlands, such as the illegal discharge of pollutants into wetlands in violation of regulations, the offenders will be ordered to stop the illegal discharge and required to dismantle the sewage discharge facilities within a set time (Stokstad 2005). Failure to comply within the specified time will result in daily fines for overdue payment and the confiscation of all illegal gains. The treatment fee for wetland ecosystem destruction will be charged at a higher rate based on the degree of pollution to the wetland, and the fines for offenders will be determined according to the severity of the wetland destruction, restoration costs and time taken for restoration (AghaKouchak et al. 2015).
Furthermore, for the owners, contractors or operators of wetland resources, an ecological compensation system will be adopted when their current production and operation are restricted. Ecological compensation conditions have been defined in the regulations of wetland protection in each province, and the compensation standards have been clearly established according to local circumstances. Ecological benefit compensation standards have been reasonably determined, considering factors such as wetland grade, type, ecological benefit, land nature, ownership, damage or restriction, and will be periodically adjusted based on local economic and social development conditions.
Classified management of wetlands clear protection objectives
The new wetland protection law has introduced a wetland classification system and hierarchical management approach. Wetlands are categorized into important wetlands and general wetlands based on their ecological significance. The law has also defined wetland classifications and identified the primary protection objectives for each type of wetland.
Wetlands offer a wide range of ecological functions, such as providing food and raw materials for humans, purifying polluted water, buffering floods by absorbing excess water and mitigating climate change by capturing and storing carbon (Woodward et al. 2014). One of the key goals of wetland protection is to preserve these valuable ecological functions, which necessitates maintaining the ecosystem in a good and healthy condition both quantitatively and qualitatively. This requires more targeted and precise policies for different areas or different types of wetlands.
Along the west Pacific Ocean coast, China has 14 provinces, and none of the existing provisional wetland regulations mentioned the specific category of ‘Sea’ for coastal areas. For example, in the southeast provinces of China, storms are one of the main hazards that can cause damage to coastal and nearby river wetlands, while in arid regions like northwest China, the lack of available water poses a significant threat to wetland ecosystems. In rapidly developing areas, urban expansion may encroach upon wetlands, whereas in developed mega-cities, industrial areas or agricultural regions, water pollution remains a major concern for wetlands. The new law has also strengthened the protection of mangroves and peatlands. Local governments at or above the county level, where mangrove wetlands and peat swamp wetlands are located, are required to prepare special plans for wetland protection. Mangroves and peatlands are classified as important wetlands, and those that meet the criteria would be given priority to be designated as Nationally Important Wetlands.
The newly issued Wetland Protection Law specifies the requirements for wetland protection and restoration for each type of wetland. It also outlines the prohibited actions that could destroy the habitats of important wetlands. The current legislative documents standardize wetland restoration principles, identify responsible entities and establish restoration projects and measures. In line with the principles of ecological areas and the importance of preserving ecological functions and biodiversity, the law designates important wetlands as part of the red line of ecological protection, which indicates areas with special and crucial ecological functions that must be strictly and compulsorily protected within the scope of ecological space. The Department of Forestry and Grassland under the State Council is responsible for wetland supervision, management and protection, as well as the formulation of relevant national standards. Other relevant departments are assigned tasks related to wetland protection, restoration and management based on their respective areas of responsibility. The relevant departments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government conduct dynamic monitoring of important provincial wetlands, while the relevant departments of local governments strengthen the dynamic monitoring of general wetlands.
The strict policy ensures wetland systems’ integrity and connectivity
The ‘no net loss’ policy is generally aimed at avoiding the destruction of wetlands, and if i.e. not possible, compensating for the loss by restoring degraded wetlands or creating new ones (Maron et al. 2018; Xu et al. 2019). This policy has been adopted in many countries to address the widespread loss of biodiversity or natural assets (He 2019; Jiang et al. 2020), and the new Chinese wetland law includes clauses related to no net loss.
However, traditional compensation mechanisms tend to overlook or only focus on the area of wetland loss, disregarding other crucial factors such as location, types and ecological functions. This approach may not adequately offset biodiversity loss caused by urbanization, infrastructure development and industrial activities. For instance, from 2000 to 2015, while China’s overall wetland area increased by 154 800 ha, marshes, which are significant natural wetlands, decreased by 756 200 ha. The water surface expansion in lakes, marshes and reservoirs resulting from dam construction and glacier melting may lead to a decline in biodiversity due to the loss of waterside habitats (Yang et al. 2016). Furthermore, the loss of natural wetlands can result in the permanent disappearance of certain ecological functions. For example, the loss of marshes in eastern China has reduced the habitat for global carbon mitigation, and the loss of peat in Tibet has removed an irreplaceable carbon sink that cannot be compensated for.
China faces significant challenges when it comes to compensating for current and future wetland protection. With a population of over 140 million, China requires substantial cultivable land, leading the government to establish a comprehensive cultivated land protection legal system that ensures enough cultivable area—approximately 12 million hectares—for food security (Lu et al. 2019; Zhou et al. 2021). Over the past decades, some of this cultivable land has come from natural wetlands, but these land conversions are irreversible. Additionally, China’s large population has resulted in massive and rapid urban expansion, further encroaching on wetland areas. Moreover, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration (NFGA) launched the ‘Natural Forestry Protection Project’ in 1998, and by 2018, the total area of protected forests reached 216.22 million hectares, accounting for about 22.52% of China’s total land area. The vast desert area in China covers about 262 million hectares, which amounts to 27.29% of the total land area. Given these circumstances, China lacks the capacity for ‘compensation’ in wetland protection, making the ‘no net loss’ policy the only viable option to safeguard wetlands.
The new Wetland Law incorporates more stringent clauses that stipulate the following: (i) For wetlands with crucial and irreplaceable ecological functions, human activities that may interfere with or damage the ecosystems and ecological processes are not allowed; (ii) For other wetlands, low-impact and sustainable activities such as ecological tourism, ecological agriculture and nature experiences can be permitted under the strict monitoring and supervision of the government.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on an analysis of 962 wetland legislations currently in force across 197 countries, including laws, regulations and miscellaneous documents, we have examined the global wetland legislation process and the need for China to establish a special national wetland law. Our findings indicate that 29 countries have implemented 71% of the total wetland legislations, with 10 or more legislations for wetland protection each, while 69 countries have yet to enact any legislation for wetland protection. China, unfortunately, was relatively late in issuing its wetland protection law, which was finally enacted on 1 June 2022. Through text analysis, we have identified 14 evolving themes of protected objects, with water (477) and species and ecosystems (625) being the most consistent and significant themes. As more countries recognize the importance of wetland conservation, the themes addressed in wetland legislation have become more diverse and the level of protection provided by legislation has deepened.
We have also assessed the relationship between wetland legislation and socio-economic development from a global GDP and provincial GDP perspective in China. It is evident that developed countries initiated legislation earlier than developing countries, and approximately 89.29% of countries began their legislation process when GDP per capita reached 400 dollars. However, at the provincial level in China, this relationship appears less clear. Provincial regulations have mainly focused on halting the loss of overall wetland area, highlighting the need for a special wetland law to effectively promote wetland protection.
Lastly, drawing from past global experiences and China’s unique context, we have outlined four highlights of the newly issued wetland protection and management law in China. These highlights include (i) consolidating the legislative systems for wetland protection to address multi-department management and supervision challenges, (ii) clarifying legal subjects and responsibilities and increasing the financial penalties for illegal occupation of wetlands, (iii) establishing a wetland classification system and hierarchical management to specify protection targets and explicit protection priorities and (iv) implementing a strict policy to ensure the integrity and connectivity of wetland systems, and adopting different strategies based on ecological functions.
Ultimately, a stringent legal requirement plays a vital role in guiding and promoting the process of wetland conservation and restoration, defining the boundaries of wetland protection and imbuing wetland legislation with a level of enforceability that other legislative measures may lack.
Funding
This research was supported Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau of China (2021-LYGGFZC-02-001) and Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation (2022A1515011270).
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
