Dongtan wetlands plans to further open up for tourism

Shanghai Dongtan Wetland Park eventually plans to open some of its restricted zones to tourists, but not at the expense of ecological protection for the area, local authorities said Thursday, on World Wetlands Day.

Currently, the 24-square-kilometer wetland park, the largest of 12 wetland areas in the city - home to 313 animal species and 97 bird species - only permits visitors to tour about a tenth of its grounds. Since 2005, the area open to tourists, known as Xisha Wetland, has welcomed more than tens of thousands of visitors.

While authorities are keen on exploiting Dongtan's tourism numbers, they vowed Thursday not to rush into any such development without careful consideration for the existing natural wildlife and habitats inside the park. A detailed plan on tourism initiatives will be released later this year, said Liu Weiguang, a press officer for the city's appearance and sanitation administration bureau, which is in charge of the city's wetlands protection.

"We're still in the planning stages," he told the Global Times Thursday. "But, continued ecological protection will be our top priority before opening the wetlands up to further tourism; we'll make sure to keep the existing wildlife and habitats safe."

Situated on Chongming Island, Dongtan, named the best ecological reserve in the country by national officials last year, is among the seven wetlands in the city that local authorities are planning to further open up to tourists in the future, Liu added.

The honor is owed in part to the park's special task force "Eagle IV," an initiative set up last year to protect birds in the core zone of the wetlands, said Tang Chendong, deputy director of Dongtan's reserve office.

"Basically, we have officers patrol the area at all times to keep hunters and trespassers from illegally entering restricted grounds," he told the Global Times Thursday.

Dai Xingyi, an expert in wetlands management from Fudan University, said that protecting the grounds from both human and environmental destruction will ensure the area remains a suitable place for the park's hundreds of species to live for years to come - but cautioned against too much opening-up for tourists in the future.

"The real danger is that once too many tourists trot through, the animals and birds in the wetlands could be scared off and never come back, especially the birds that migrate south every year," he told the Global Times Thursday.

Dai suggested that the city follow Hangzhou's lead with Xixi Wetland Park, where a fine balance between tourism and ecological interests have been managed.

"Xixi also has experienced tour guides, which is crucial for not only educating visitors about the need for ecological protection in order to raise public awareness, but also in terms of being able to provide tours that will cause as little disruption to the area as possible," he said.