Ecosystem

Major Threat

Source

Outcome

Aquatic habitats of the Amur River and its larger tributaries

Pollution

•  Population growth, economic development, and lack of sanitation facilities, especially in Heilongjiang Province of China; insufficient sanitation facilities in large Russian cities

•  contamination of waterways by phenols from decomposition of organic materials; declining abundance of aquatic fauna

Energy development

•  Construction of the Bureya hydroelectric station; plans for new hydroelectric stations on the Amur and other rivers

•  Disruption of natural hydrological regimes; loss of seasonal habitats for aquatic fauna

Overfishing

•  Salmon fishing by commercial marine fishers; unrestricted fishing in China ; inadequate legislation and lack of enforcement mechanisms in Russia ; absence of socio-economic conditions to introduce sustainable fishing mechanisms

•  Declining fish stocks; inability of fish populations to recover; loss of livelihood for minority communities; potential extinction of commercially valuable species

Wetlands of the Amur-Heilong River basin

Energy development& water manage-ment

•  Regulation of water flow from hydroelectric stations and dams

•  dyke construction along river banks,

•  excessive water consumption by agriculture.

•  wetland dehydration, habitat loss & degradation

•  loss of seasonal waterfowl breeding and fish spawning habitats

•  loss of aquifer recharge capacity of wetlands

Fires in floodplain forest-grassland habitats

•  Traditional annual burning of pastures and hay fields, thought to increase productivity

•  Destruction of nestlings of ground-nesting birds, especially cranes; loss of nesting and brood-rearing habitats; mortality of woody seedlings inhibits forest recovery

Timber harvest

•  Cutting of remnant relic forests for firewood by local people

•  Reduction of forest cover

Agriculture and animal husbandry

•  Wildland conversion to farmland

•  Wind erosion of humus layer from agricultural lands; overgrazing

•  runoff of soils and animal waste from farms

•  Loss of wildland area

•  Increased soil loss and water turbidity

•  Eutrophication of water bodies

Over-exploitation of wildlife

•  Unregulated hunting of migratory birds in wintering areas in China; poaching and non-sustainable use of game resources in Russia; increasing numbers of crows

•  Decrease in numbers of wild animals

Anthro-pogenic wildfire

•  Decrease and fragmentation of nesting habitat; birds killed by fires and poachers

•  Disappearance of rare birds of prey

Coniferous-broadleaf forests

Timber production

•  Clearcutting and unsustainable logging

•  Decline in area of old-growth forests

•  Selective cutting of valuable species

•  Ecosystem degradation

Over-exploitation of resources

•  Illegal hunting and collecting

•  Disappearance of rare species of plants and animals

•  Decrease in prey base for large predators

•  conflicts between humans and large predators

•  habitat loss

Eastern Siberian boreal forests

Unregulated resource exploitation

•  Commercial mining

•  Energy development

•  Transformation of native ecosystems

•  Reduction of floodplain forests during gold mining operations

•  flooding of forests with creation of the Bureya hydroelectric station

Timber production

•  Pioneer-style unsustainable logging practices; anthropogenic forest fires

•  Disappearance of forests after clearcutting on unstable mountain or permafrost soils;

•  Ecosystem degradation

•  Declining forest cover; declining forest wildlife

•  increased erosion, impacts on water bodies