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More protection for China's wetlands

Nature volume 471, page 305 (2011)Cite this article

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We estimate that China's natural wetlands are disappearing even faster than feared (Nature 471, 19; 2011). Stricter measures are needed to protect what is left of this valuable ecosystem against the increasing demand for land and development.

Using Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery to map China's wetlands (see, for example, Nature 458, 134; 2009), we found that 33% were lost between 1978 and 2008. Some 55% of these were natural inland marshes, many of which are biodiversity hotspots. Land reclamation accounted for more than 70% of the total loss.

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  1. State Key Lab of Remote Sensing Science, Institute of Remote Sensing Applications, Beijing, China

    Zhenguo Niu & Haiying Zhang

  2. University of California, Berkeley, USA

    Peng Gong

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  1. Zhenguo Niu
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  2. Haiying Zhang
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  3. Peng Gong
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Correspondence to Peng Gong.

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Niu, Z., Zhang, H. & Gong, P. More protection for China's wetlands. Nature 471, 305 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/471305c

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