A prominent environmentalist is lobbying for wetlands around Shidu town in Fangshan district to be protected because of their importance as breeding grounds of the rare black stork.

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Guo Geng, vice-director of Beijing Elk Ecology Research Center and a CPPCC Beijing committee member, says such a conservation area could be crucial to the survival of the bird, which is a first-class national protected animal.

Guo said his team has, in the past, found more than 10 pairs of black storks breeding on the wetlands.

But he said the number using the area has fallen sharply in recent years because of the fast development of the Shidu tourist zone.

Now, development of the area is leaving increasingly small spaces for the birds.

Currently, there are only about 1,000 black storks alive worldwide.

"We saw four black storks in 2008, then three in 2009, and only two in 2010," he said. "If the wetland is not properly protected, there will soon be none."

Guo said humans are making life difficult for the birds not only through development but in a wide range of other ways. He said the storks are frequently disturbed on the lake by people racing around on speedboats.

And they are even having to compete for fish with the fishermen who now use the lakes and waterways. He said some of the fishermen use electric shocks to kill fish and the indiscriminate way of killing is divesting the wetlands of life.

Guo said the ecology is also being harmed by the large amount of trash being thrown into the area's waterways.

"Like the panda, the black stork is a flagship species. That is to say, if black storks are well protected, other animals and plants using the wetlands will surely be in good condition as well," he said. "Only by building a protection zone can we have a stable number of wild animals on this piece of land.

"With Beijing aiming to become an international city, we should really make a point of mentioning that this international bird has happily based its home here."

A fervent animal protectionist, Guo has been struggling to defeat a recent plan in Miyun district to build a 100-square-kilometer game park in the area that would be the largest in North China.

The area earmarked for the game reserve was first used for hunting in 1994 but was closed in 2000 because of a lack of business. Now, the district government is hoping to resurrect the idea with a 50-million-yuan investment.

Guo said the creation of a hunting ground in the area would damage the whole capital's ecology.

"I'm strongly against the plan," he said. "Wild animals living there would be killed for fun. It won't be long before the number of wild animals in Beijing will be diminished beyond repair."

Instead, he said, such plans should be shelved and existing hunting grounds closed while more conservation areas, like the one he would like to see for the black stork, should be created.

"Let's shoot animals with cameras, not with guns," he said.