The Sihcao Wetlands are a protected ecological environment in Tainan

Tainan

Tainan City is a city in southern Taiwan. It is the fifth largest after New Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, and Taipei. It was formerly a provincial city, and in 2010, the provincial city merged with the adjacent Tainan County to form a single special municipality. Tainan faces the Taiwan Strait in...

, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

. They were set aside in 1994 by the Tainan City government and consist of approxiamtely 515 hectars.

The protected area consists of mangrove swamps

Mangrove

Mangroves are various kinds of trees up to medium height and shrubs that grow in saline coastal sediment habitats in the tropics and subtropics – mainly between latitudes N and S...

, salt marshes, rivers, canals and drainage ditches. It is located in Tainan City's Annan District, and consists of the area bounded by the southeastern side of the Luermen River, the southwestern side of Xi-Bin Road, and the northern side of the Yan-Shui River.

In November 2004, the Sihcao Wildlife Refuge(四草野生動物保護區) was created to further protect the area, especially from possible encroachment from the nearby Tainan Technology Industrial Park.

On 10 December 2007, the Sihcao Wetland, along with the Zengwun Estuary Wetland (曾文溪口濕地) were listed as international wetlands under the Ramsar Convention

Ramsar Convention

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty for the conservation and sustainable utilization of wetlands, i.e., to stem the progressive encroachment on and loss of wetlands now and in the future, recognizing the fundamental ecological functions of wetlands and their economic, cultural,...

.