With the imminent development of Urumqi’s Bainiao Lake New District in Xinjiang, how to protect Bai Lake within the new area—crucial for safeguarding the critically endangered Baitou Mandarin Duck—has become one of the most pressing concerns among bird enthusiasts and conservationists nationwide in recent days.
On the afternoon of August 9th, at Room C101 of the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Nature University’s College of Birds and Beasts was fortunate to host a discussion with Xinjiang birdwatcher Xirui, legal scholar Xie Yan who advocates for protected areas, Li Li from the grassroots Black Leopard Wildlife Conservation Station, as well as Xinjiang ecologist and ornithologist Ma Ming and Xinjiang Birdwatching Society volunteer Zhang Yaodong. Their shared goal was to formulate a protection plan for Bai Lake as soon as possible and submit it promptly to the Urumqi municipal government and forestry authorities. This would maximize the chances of establishing a nature reserve for the Baitou Mandarin Duck at Bai Lake in Xinjiang, helping preserve this rare species. In doing so, it might also provide a vivid case study for improving China’s protected area management system.
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(The Baitou Mandarin Duck primarily breeds in southeastern European Russia, western Siberia, with scattered populations in northwestern Mongolia, certain areas near the Black Sea in Europe, southern Italy and Spain, and northwestern Africa. In China, it breeds in the Alatau Mountains of northwestern Xinjiang, with the Alashankou area of the Tianshan Mountains being one of the observed migration routes. Photo by Xirui)
Baitou Mandarin Duck: A Globally Endangered Species Still Not Nationally Protected
There’s no doubt that this waterbird—with its snow-white head and a beak as bright blue as the sky—is enough to catch the eye of any birder. Zhang Yaodong, a member of the Xinjiang Birdwatching Society, recalls that in mid-May 2007, at a small reservoir wetland on the outskirts of Urumqi, the regional capital, he was captivated by this peculiar duck and quickly took photos.
After identification by bird experts, this wild duck with a beak resembling “Donald Duck’s” was confirmed to be the Baitou Mandarin Duck—a very rare species and one of the globally endangered birds listed by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It is also included in China’s Red List of Endangered Animals. Over the past decade, there have only been sporadic sightings of the Baitou Mandarin Duck across China, with no confirmed breeding records.
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(In recent years, local media in Xinjiang have repeatedly reported on the destruction of Bai Lake, the habitat of the Baitou Mandarin Duck, and the sharp decline in its breeding numbers, making the species well-known. Photo by Xirui)
Why is breeding so important? According to data from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the global population of Baitou Mandarin Ducks is only between 2,500 and 10,000, having declined by 60% overall. Successful breeding is extremely critical for this species, making every breeding habitat particularly vital to protect.
In June 2007, Wen Zhimin, a member of the Xinjiang Birdwatching Society, observed 14 Baitou Mandarin Ducks at the sewage reservoir in Kuytun City in northern Xinjiang—six adults (three males and three females) and eight juveniles. In the same year, Zhang Yaodong recorded the largest known group of Baitou Mandarin Ducks at Bai Lake in the western suburbs of Urumqi, 14 kilometers from the city center, totaling 45 ducks including adult males, females, and juveniles, filling a gap in the species’ breeding records in China.
Based on years of monitoring, Zhang Yaodong and several other local birdwatchers in Xinjiang summarized: Every year in mid-May, Baitou Mandarin Ducks arrive at these very few observation points in northwestern Xinjiang and stay until mid-October. They nest in dense but shoreline-distant reed beds and bays, sharing habitats with water rails and mallards. The hatching and brooding period occurs from May to June, with chicks usually first appearing around mid-June. After hatching, the female duck protects the chicks as they leave the nest to forage and swim, but they generally stay close to the reeds, with broods numbering 1–5 chicks. In the later stages of brooding (generally after early August), Baitou Mandarin Duck families gradually begin to group together and prefer larger, offshore waters where they mix with other waterbirds, showing clear coexistence of males, females, and juveniles.
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(As the Baitou Mandarin Duck has gained fame, more birdwatchers from various regions—including those from inland—have provided observation data. However, this year’s statistics so far are not optimistic, with only two males, one female, and 11 juveniles recorded. Photo by Xirui)
But Zhang Yaodong said that since then, no other observation site has had a brood group reaching the scale of Bai Lake in 2007. Moreover, among the four currently known distribution sites of the Baitou Mandarin Duck—two natural water bodies and two sewage ponds in northwestern Xinjiang—two have been completely abandoned. The remaining active breeding sites are a natural wetland at Bai Lake in the western suburbs of Urumqi and a sewage pond in nearby Kuytun City, but the situation remains concerning.
Ma Ming, an ornithologist from the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told us via phone: He had just visited Bai Lake twice recently. On the second visit, he didn’t see any ducks; on the first, he only spotted one male. The reason is simple—human disturbance is too high. People are swimming and boating in Bai Lake...
Before Ma Ming could finish, the image of a male duck suffering disturbance and harassment in the middle of the lake immediately came to the author’s mind. This mirrors the legal protection status of the Baitou Mandarin Duck in China. In today’s list of protected wildlife in China, the Baitou Mandarin Duck is still classified as a “Class III protected animal,” not a national-level protected species. China also still has no legally recognized protected areas dedicated to safeguarding the survival of the Baitou Mandarin Duck.
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(The peak number of Baitou Mandarin Duck breeding groups recorded at Bai Lake reached 45, but has since plummeted, with only five in 2010. Across all of Xinjiang and China, there are only four confirmed distribution sites, two of which have been completely abandoned. Photo by Zhang Yaodong)
Bai Lake: The Future Urban Lake—How to Protect It?
Xirui is a resident birdwatcher in Xinjiang. Since 2006, he has visited nearly every birding spot in the region. He says there are many fish- and shrimp-filled ponds and wetlands in Xinjiang, but no lake has consistently attracted the Baitou Mandarin Duck like Bai Lake.
Located in the western suburbs of Xinjiang, 14 kilometers from Urumqi’s city center, Bai Lake is a natural wetland covering just 1.1 square kilometers, surrounded by mountains on both sides and covered in reeds. Xirui says Bai Lake has no external water source—it is formed by rainwater and melted spring water—so its water is oxygen-rich, supporting only some plankton besides waterbirds.
This perfectly matches the habitat requirements of the Baitou Mandarin Duck—“shallow, nutrient-rich saline wetlands, enclosed inland waters, and semi-arid regions (baohu.org).”
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(Bai Lake is currently the only natural wetland breeding site for the Baitou Mandarin Duck, but today it faces heavy human disturbance, leading to a sharp decline in the duck’s numbers. Photo by Laolao Niu)
Compared to the artificial sewage ponds in Kuytun, Bai Lake has always been considered a more ideal breeding ground for the Baitou Mandarin Duck. Moreover, protecting Bai Lake is not just for the sake of the Baitou Mandarin Duck.
Xirui explains that besides the Baitou Mandarin Duck, birdwatchers have recorded 113 bird species here over the years, making Bai Lake a crucial biodiversity hotspot. At the same time, Bai Lake is the last hope for these hundreds of bird species. Zhang Yaodong says that wetland protection in Urumqi is severe—the wetlands in the eastern suburbs have turned into stinking pits, the northern wetlands have become garbage dumps and stinking pools, and the southern wetlands continue to shrink and fragment. So far, the wetlands at Bai Lake in the western suburbs have at least not completely disappeared.
In the past five or six years, as the Baitou Mandarin Duck has frequently appeared in local media, Bai Lake has transformed from a quiet place into a recreational spot for citizens. Those who come here to barbecue and swim do not sense the threats facing Bai Lake. Zhang Yaodong says that the northern shore of Bai Lake was planned as a large industrial park in 2010, and a major drainage outlet now faces the lake. Quarrying activities have continued for years just one kilometer from the northwest shore, while a sand mining site is located about 300 meters from the eastern shore. The western shore, which he previously thought was relatively desolate, has recently begun to show signs of building complexes. “If these buffer zones disappear, Bai Lake will lose its water supply—can Bai Lake still be preserved?”
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(Besides egg poaching and bird netting, burning reeds is also a direct threat. Reed beds are the nesting areas of the Baitou Mandarin Duck, but local herders burn them every 2–3 years to promote regrowth. Zhang Yaodong once wondered if they could negotiate with the herders to avoid burning during the nesting and hatching periods to ensure successful breeding. Photo by Zhang Yaodong)
Ma Ming explained via phone that according to the published planning map of the Bainiao Lake New District, Bai Lake will become the central “urban lake” of the entire development zone. A 100-square-kilometer area will be developed—with the west designated for industrial parks, the east for transportation hubs like high-speed rail and highways, and the north for technology parks. The city, currently home to 2 million people, is set to grow to 5 million, with extensive residential and industrial construction and a crisscrossing road network.
“The entire environment will undergo a huge transformation. Once it becomes like that, with no buffer zones, how can we protect it? Moreover, the government has not yet finalized whether to protect Bai Lake or the Baitou Mandarin Duck...” Ma Ming said with concern.
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(This natural water body is one of the distribution sites abandoned by the Baitou Mandarin Duck and was once seen as Bai Lake’s future. Located about one kilometer north of Bai Lake, it covers less than 0.5 square kilometers, with dense reed cover and barren surrounding hills. There were observation records in 2007 and 2008, but after 2008, road construction began 500 meters away, followed by gradual industrial development, with construction encroaching on the lakeshore. From spring 2009 to July 2010, there were no signs of Baitou Mandarin Duck activity. Photo by Zhang Yaodong)
Nature Reserve: The Last Hope for the Baitou Mandarin Duck
Yang Haiming, Creative Director of the Development Planning Center at Beijing Tsinghua Urban Planning & Design Institute and Director of the Natural Heritage and Ecological Conservation Research Office, said in response to on-site questions that, based on his observations, the reason why urban planning in China today generally suffers from serious failures in biodiversity conservation is that the curriculum of landscape architecture programs is completely divorced from environmental and biological protection. “It’s not that designers lack conscience, but that they lack knowledge.”
Fortunately, however, China today has no shortage of individual success stories that go against this trend. Following the launch of the open letter campaign calling for the establishment of a “nature reserve area” for the White-headed Stiff-tailed Duck, many people mentioned the case of the Blue-throated Bee-eater conservation in Xiamen, where developers proactively sought advice from birdwatchers and ultimately revised the development plan, successfully protecting the bird species.
In addition, the day's discussions focused more on the feasible space for establishing “nature reserve areas.” Although maintaining habitat integrity and connectivity is undoubtedly important in China’s nature conservation efforts, fragmented small-scale habitats are equally crucial for the protection of many endangered species.
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(In the future, Baihu — referred to as “Bainiao Lake” on the map — is planned as an urban lake within the Bainiao Lake New Area. Will such planning allow Baihu to maintain sufficient buffer zones to ensure its water level does not drop, thereby safeguarding the breeding of the White-headed Stiff-tailed Duck?)
Xie Yan, Associate Researcher at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, explained, “Many protected areas smaller than Baihu have already been designated as nature reserve areas. These areas are flexible. If the region is small and focuses on a specific species, the procedures are simple and can be established quickly.”
A successful example is the Black Leopard Wildlife Conservation Station located in Shidu, Beijing. Li Li, head of the station, explained that over the past 12 years, the station has led volunteers in patrolling, rescuing, educating, and assisting law enforcement. It has actively interacted with local governments, encouraged more local villagers to join conservation efforts, and strongly promoted the establishment of the Demoiselle Crane Nature Reserve Area. “At that time, Teacher Xie Yan gave me a book on protected areas. I took it to discuss with the local forestry bureau. They said establishing a formal nature reserve wasn’t feasible, but setting up a nature reserve area was possible. At the same time, our team would cover the funding for patrols, and eventually the project succeeded.”
Xie Yan believes that as long as someone is conducting patrols, consistently monitoring illegal activities, urging law enforcement, and educating local communities, these basic efforts are enough to justify establishing a nature reserve area. “The issue with many formal protected areas lies precisely in the lack of enforcement. Many protected area management bureaus don’t even have anyone conducting patrols. That’s why the volunteer-driven patrolling efforts are highly commendable and need to be leveraged,” Xie Yan said.
For the past six months or more, Xie Yan has been working hard to promote research aimed at replacing the Natural Heritage Law with a Natural Protected Areas Law. She believes that, under the premise of ensuring the protection of natural goals, allowing certain business activities should be permissible. (Within the four-tier classification of protected areas proposed by Xie Yan’s Natural Protected Areas Legislation Research Group, the latter two categories — “Nature Exhibition” and “Restricted Use” — permit a certain degree of business activity. More speeches by Dr. Xie Yan regarding the Natural Protected Areas Law can be downloaded by clicking here.) The backwardness of conservation management in many areas is precisely because managers have not clearly delineated the relationship between conservation and business modules. The same team acts as both protectors and operators. “These two roles need to be separated, and conservation must be independent from business operations.”
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(Large-scale deep sand mining near the lakeside has interrupted groundwater recharge. Once the newly planned Baihu establishes a nature reserve area, sand mining might be halted for restoration, returning the birds to Baihu. Photo by Zhang Yaodong)
Specifically regarding the case of the White-headed Stiff-tailed Duck, Xie Yan suggested that local governments need to be quickly informed of the fundamental principles for protecting the species and Baihu: “Ensuring there is no poaching? No theft of eggs? Ensuring Baihu’s water quality is not polluted and its water level does not drop? And so on — list out these hard indicators as routine tasks for the nature reserve area, and assign enough volunteers for patrols. From this perspective, if the White-headed Stiff-tailed Duck is protected, Baihu will also be protected, bringing only benefits and no harm to the city’s overall economic development.”
This is also the ideal vision of many local birdwatchers, including Xi Rui — transforming Baihu into a birdwatching park that combines conservation and viewing, protecting Baihu, attracting the White-headed Stiff-tailed Duck to breed here every year, and allowing more people to benefit from the ecological beauty of Baihu.
Weibo post by Pao Pao Xiao Bing