Guizhou province in Southwest China, which features much karst in its landscape, saw its wetlands, cited as the "kidney of the earth", decrease by 6,800 hectares during the decade from 2003 to 2013, according to a survey result.

"Wetlands can hardly be seen in Guizhou, because the karst landform produces rare surface water but fertile ground water for the province," said Li Ping, deputy director of the Forestry Department of Guizhou.

The Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture in the southwestern region of Guizhou accounts for the province's largest wetland area of 37,600 hectares, while Liupanshui has the smallest of 8,100 hectares.

"Some merchants were purchasing sphagnum moss (a wetland plant) at a high price during the 1980s and 1990s, so the local people in the Qiandongnan Miao and Dong autonomous prefecture dug it up for sale. This led to a fatal disaster for the wetlands there," said Ran Jingcheng, a provincial expert, adding that changes in the Caohai Nature Reserve showed the resulting damage. The reserve in Weining county, the biggest lake wetland of Guizhou, saw its water area decrease from 45 square kilometers to the current 25 square km.

Wetland conservation has boomed during the past decade, but Guizhou lags behind. China has 46 wetlands of international importance, but none is in Guizhou.

Guizhou has 209,700 hectares of wetland, occupying just 1.19 percent of the province's total area, and its protection rate is just 26.53 percent, lower than the national standard by 16.98 percentage points.

"Guizhou has scarce wetland resources, and our protection is insufficient. But we are definitely trying hard now," Li said.