Climate change and human activity have changed the Zoige wetland area significantly.However,how the area has varied in the past 30 years remains poorly understood.This study quantified the variation tendency and rate of the Zoige wetland area from 1978 to 2008 with Arcgis and analyzed the driving factors using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) methods.The result showed that the Zoige wetland area decreased by 12.83% from 1978 (6 170 km~2) to 2008 (5 379 km~2),with a decreasing rate of 0.43% per year.We found that overgrazing,drainage,precipitation change,rodent damage,and population growth were the main driving factors of the decrease in the area of the Zoige wetland,with the driving weights of 0.380 1,0.157 3,0.138 6,0.075 2,and 0.073 3,respectively.In conclusion,we found that the Zoige wetland area has degraded continuously in the past 30 years because of the co-function of natural factors and human activity.