China's land requisition for economic and social development has threatened its wetlands and the government should establish a special ecological project to protect its precious wetland resources, said a senior official on Friday.

Jiang Zehui, president of the Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences made the remark at a forum held in Beijing Friday to mark the International Wetland Day, which falls on Feb. 2.

China's total area of 36.2 million hectares of wetland tops that of other Asian countries and is fourth largest in the world.

In August and November 2003, special teams jointly dispatched by the Legislative Affairs Office under the State Council and the Chinese Academy of Forestry Sciences went to northeast China's Heilongjiang and Jilin provinces and east China's provinces of Shandong and Jiangsu and municipality of Shanghai to inspect wetland protection work.

The special teams found a host of problems existing in wetland protection in those areas, such as insufficient funds and inadequate legal system and management system on wetland protection.

A case in point is the Xianghai nature zone of northeast China's Jilin Province, where human and livestock activities have undermined the ecological system of the local wetland.

The special teams proposed that the government set up local regulations for protecting wetland, intensify investment to wetland protection and establish a water use compensation system in wetland areas.

(Xinhua News Agency January 31, 2004)