Chinese people love lotus roots as a delicacy. Hubei Province produces a majority of China's lotus roots, and the industry is worth billions of yuan to the local economy. Lotus fields not only provide farmers with sustainable livelihoods, but also serve as important breeding habitats for birds.
On World Migratory Bird Day 2021, ornithologists Li Zhenwen and his assistant Li Li from the Expert Committee of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) conducted a biodiversity survey on the lotus fields around Wuhan. On this day, they not only recorded 7 species of 260 birds, but also recorded the invasive alien species Pomacea canaliculata in these lotus fields for the first time.
Since 2015, Li Zhenwen and Li Li have been surveying and recording a large number of waders breeding locally, which refreshes the current understanding of waders' northward migration. At the same time, they have carried out biodiversity research in those fields, and have made many new discoveries, understandings and insights. Through a large number of records and data collected, they confirmed that lotus field is an important type of habitat for breeding waders. They called on people to protect the original habitats of lotus root fields (especially those with traditional farming ways), to take immediate action for conservation, and to explore wetland ecological compensation policies for farmers live on such livelihoods.