Cao Hai National Nature Reserve (CNNR) exemplifies the challenges faced by wetland nature reserves in the Peoples Republic of China.Cao Hai National Nature Reserve protects a plateau wetland ecosystem and critical wintering habitat for rare Black-necked Cranes.Cao Hai Lake,the centerpiece of the reserve,has a complicated history.Two drainage projects transformed parts of the lake bottom into farmland that was managed by large collective farms.In the early 1980s,this farmland was contracted to individual households who managed their land like family farms.However,a lake restoration project soon flooded these farmers lands leaving them insufficient farmland to provide for their families.Following the restoration of Cao Hai Lake rare birds returned to the lake,prompting the government to declare Cao Hai a nature reserve in 1985.Conflicts between economic development and nature conservation are particularly severe at Cao Hai because of the lakes complicated history.In the early 1990s,an international project has been launched to solve the conflict between the local farmers and managerial agency in Cao Hai,policies recommendations have also been made by the high level of the environmental management agencies to address the similar problems of the rural areas in China.