Photo shows the Lhalu Wetland in Lhasa, capital of southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region. (Photo: Tibet Daily)

China's Central Government will spend 310 million yuan RMB (45.4 million U.S. dollars) over the next few years protecting Tibet's wetland eco-system, according to the Tibet Autonomous Regional Forestry Bureau.

Tibet has the largest wetland area in China with various types of wetland eco-systems.

To protect Tibet's fragile eco-system, the State Council (China's cabinet) approved a proposal in February 2009 to allot 15.5 billion yuan RMB (2.27 billion dollars) to implement three kinds of ten eco-protection projects in the next 25 years.

The first survey of Tibet's wetlands shows that the region's wetlands cover six million hectares, 10 percent of China's total wetland area and 4.9 percent of Tibet's landmass.

Tibet's wetland eco-systems include lake wetlands, marsh wetlands, river wetlands and artificial wetlands, covering 2.54 million hectares, 3.2 million hectares, 264,000 hectares and 1,000 hectares, respectively.

To date, the combined area of Tibet's nature reserves has reached 412,600 sq km, 34.3 percent of Tibet's landmass.

Tibet has built one national-level wetland nature reserve and eight regional-level ones, and built three national wetland parks in 2009.

The second survey of Tibet's wetlands is expected to be finished at the yearend