Lake Poyang

People´s Republic of China

Poyang-hu is the largest freshwater lake in China, situated in the Jiangxi Province, approximately 50 km north of Nanchang. The Poyang flood plain is subject to massive changes in water level.

In the dry season the size of the lake shrinks to less than 1,000 sq. km, leaving a complex of wetlands and mudflats which attracts up to half a million waterfowl, among them remarkable species such as the Siberian Crane with more than 4,000 specimen (95 % of the world’s population) and the White-naped Crane with more than 2,000 individuals. In the rainy season (late summer) the size of the lake grows up to 4,400 sq. km. The average depth is 8.4 m, the maximum depth is 25.1 m. The lake is connected to the Yangtse River (Chang Jiang) through a 1 km long channel and serves as a natural overflow reservoir. The lake basin is one of China’s most important rice-producing regions. Due to regular severe floods the Jiangxi is among the poorest provinces in China. In autumn 1998 the area was affected by a dramatic flood.

The major problems are the poisoning of birds (swans, geese and ducks) through agricultural pesticides, siltation, electro fishing by the local fishermen to harvest the fish and poverty, especially of the farmers. More than 1,000 sq. km of wetland areas were drained from 1954 to 1984. Erosion and degradation left large areas (670 sq. km) of "waste land" behind, sandy areas with no vegetation.

There exist practically no purification treatment plants for the local sewage water and therefore the eutrophication of the water increases. Nevertheless the water quality is still good (Class II). Negative impacts originate of toxic heavy metals pollution from copper mines in the eastern part of the lake.

The Living Lakes partner organisation at Lake Poyang is MRLSD (Promotion Association for Mountain-River-Lake Regional Sustainable Development), a non-governmental non-profit organisation located in Nanchang (Jiangxi Province).

MRLSD´s purpose is to promote activities to protect and develop China’s largest freshwater lake and its watershed and to solve the problems of ecological degradation and poverty. The challenge is to maintain the still good ecological character of the site and at the same time to enable local people to achieve a higher living standard. MRLSD supports the MRL (Mountain-River-Lake) programme, which was started in 1985 by the Jiangxi provincial government with the aim to promote sustainable development and implement Agenda 21 issues in the region. Another focus is to find solutions to problems that started two decades ago such as serious soil erosion, floods and droughts, pollution, degradation and poverty.