Wetland Protection And Its Legislation Construction

Wetland as a vital land and natural resource constitutes with forest and ocean three major ecosystems on the earth. Protecting wetland resource plays significant roles in keeping biological diversity, maintaining ecological balance, improving ecological environment, achieving harmony between man and nature and promoting sustainable economic and social development. With the increasing shrinking of wetland area and the degradation of its functions, the protection of wetland in China becomes urgent and important.This paper aims to research on Chinese wetland protection legislation by taking Hongjiannao wetland as a study sample. Hongjiannao wetland is located at the junction of Shenmu County of Shaanxi and Yijinhuoluoqi of Inner Mongolia. Based on Shaanxi Provincial Environmental Protection Office of Research’s survey and an on-the-spot investigation of Hongjiannao wetland site, this paper combines case study, empirical analysis, comparative analysis and inductive-deductive methods to evaluate the legal status of wetland protection in China and offers the following measures to the protection of wetland resources in terms of legal construction:implementing the existing policies, strengthening the publicity and education of wetland protection, creating a legal environment in which the laws are observed and strictly enforced and issuing a nationwide special wetland protection law.This paper consists of three parts. The first part introduces wetland briefly and lists some advanced wetland protection laws and policies from foreign countries. The second part takes Hongjiannao wetland protection as a case study to illustrate the importance of legislation construction to the protection of wetland. It analyzes the natural environment and the problems facing Hongjiannao wetland and points out that the severe degrading of its wetland resources is closely related to the inadequate legislation construction concerning wetland protection. Part three summarizes the current national and local wetland protection laws, regulations and policies and suggests constructing a profound regulating and legal system to strengthen the legal construction of wetland protection.