The earliest rice cultivation 7000 years was uncovered in Chengtoushan, an ancient city that is located in Changde city, which shown the relation between the city and wetlands. Changde, a city with more than 6 million people, is located at the west bank of Dongting Lake, which was the largest freshwater lake in China. Changde city is one of the prefecture level city with 2200 year’s history, due to its rich wetland resources, and the advantages of wetland ecosystem services, in particular, its provisional services with water, fish and rice, and waterway to Yangtze River, and the East China Sea, maintains flood retention capacities, more importantly, the culture value of wetlands in Changde history. Dongting Lake, a part of the Global Ecoregion 200, was also listed as prior conservation areas in “China’s National Wetland Conservation Action Plans” in 2000, and of the 35 biodiversity conservation, as well as flood mitigation national priority regions in China. In order to safeguard the wetland ecosystem, key conservation measures have been taken by the city government, including establish varies protected areas that set 70% of the wetland under protection (through 1 Ramsar site, 8 national wetland parks, 3 provincial and local level of wetland nature reserves, many drinking water protection areas), promulgation of wetland legislation, such as “Regulation on Urban River and Lake”, “Regulation on Drinking Water Sources” by the People’s Congress of Change Municipality, as well as wetland policies that based on provincial “Regulation on Wetlands”, and “China’s National Wetland Conservation Action Plans”, “National Wetland Conservation Programs” that approved by the State Council, and “National Wetland Conservation and Restoration Orders” (2016), as well as national wetland red-line.
The City Management Plan and Zoning has set wetland conservation as top priority. Management of the Ramsar site, e.g., West Dongting Lake, has been at the center of the lake basin management, with 8 national wetland parks, three wetland nature reserves, and two national nature reserves have been setup at the upstream of the Ramsar site. At the main urban area, conservation and restoration of Chuanzi River, Liuye Lake. The city and county governments had issued legislative document for all protected areas. In particular, the authority of the Ramsar site has been the first nature reserve authority empowered with comprehensive law enforcement rights in China.