Xianghai: a model nature reserve for birds

Eight residential buildings are currently under construction in a town of the Xianghai Natural Reserve.

A month from now, over 100 households will move into them. And their original homes, covering an area of more than 600 hectares, will be left to the birds in the reserve.

Xianghai Nature Reserve is located in Tongyu county in the western part of Jilin province, Northeast China.

It is an important international wetland reserve and home to some rare waterfowl such as red-crowned cranes, great bustards, oriental white storks and black storks.

The reserve was founded in 1981 when the area was covered in thick forests and sheltered various kinds of wild animals.

Later, more and more people moved in and the habitats of many wild animals were destroyed due to cultivation of farmland and over grazing. As a result, animal populations significantly decreased.

To protect the habitats of birds and wetlands, Jilin has implemented resettlement projects.

The province has torn down dwellings and returned farmlands to the wetlands in an area of more than 6,711 hectares.

To ensure that the removal of the households was beneficial to the occupants, the government gave them large relocation fees and subsidies.

The area has a tradition of grazing which is still how many people make a living now.

To maintain the tradition, Tongyu county assisted local farmers to build standardized husbandry communities and arranged for them to move to Shandong province to learn breeding techniques.

As a result, local farmers can now sell products to local enterprises at a good price.

With these efforts, the wetlands are recovering quickly and more and more birds are migrating to the reserve. It is expected that by 2020 the reserve will have recovered to what it was in the 1990s.