Comparison of the ecosystem services provided by China's Poyang Lake wetland and Bangladesh's Tanguar Haor wetland

- China's Poyang Lake wetland and Bangladesh's Tanguar Haor wetland are important natural wetlands in Asia.
- We combined field research with surveys to analyze ecosystem services changes and their driving forces.
- We clarified ecosystem services changes and their driving forces under different political, economic, and social contexts by comparative research.
- We discussed the application of the results for land use decision making of the two wetlands.

Wetlands are the most productive ecosystem on Earth. China's Poyang Lake wetland and Bangladesh's Tanguar Haor wetland are important natural Asian wetlands. In the past 10-15 years, the ecosystem services provided have been greatly affected by human activities and the resulting significant changes in the wetlands. In this paper, we chose food supply and biodiversity as typical ecosystem services provided by these wetlands, and combined field research with surveys to analyze the changes in the characteristics of these ecosystem services in the two wetlands and their driving forces. From 2000 to 2012, we found that: (1) per capita rice production has decreased greatly in both wetlands, while the rice consumption and the level of food security have decreased in the Poyang Lake wetland and increased in the Tanguar Haor wetland. (2) The fish supply has decreased in both wetlands, with a greater decrease in the Tanguar Haor wetland. (3) The biodiversity services have improved in the Poyang Lake wetland but decreased greatly in the Tanguar Haor wetland. These changes have been caused by differences in the combination of land use policies, land use planning, population growth patterns, and economic development.