Amur-Heilong River Basin: Overview of wetland resources

Abstract

The Amur River (Heilong River in Chinese) basin is one of the largest and most diverse aquatic systems in Asia, being divided into seven distinctive freshwater ecoregions, most of them transboundary. Wetlands other than rivers and lakes are valuable components of the Amur-Heilong ecosystem. Unfortunately, no consistent comparative information is available on wetland types and their distribution in the transboundary basin due to the different approaches to land inventories in three countries. This paper describes the composition and distribution of major wetlands and current issues in Amur River basin wetland protection.