On January 19, the "White Paper on the Ecological Status of Wetlands of International Importance in China" released by the 26th World Wetland Day China Home Publicity Campaign shows that as of now, the ecological status of wetlands of international importance in mainland China has remained stable, the overall water quality has shown a good trend, and the richness of biodiversity has been further improved, with 2258 species of wetland plants and 260 species of wetland birds.
The event was held in a combination of online and offline methods, with the theme of "Cherishing Wetlands, Harmonious Coexistence between Man and Nature", launched the warm-up publicity and LOGO collection activities of the 14th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Wetlands, and the youth representatives issued wetland protection initiatives. In her video message, Martha Rogers Uregge, Secretary-General of the International Convention on Wetlands, fully affirmed the efforts made by the Chinese government in the protection of wetlands.
Since China joined the Convention on Wetlands in 1992, it has vigorously promoted the protection and restoration of wetlands, continuously enhanced wetland functions, continuously improved the ecological status of wetlands, designated 64 wetlands of international importance, established 602 wetland nature reserves, more than 1,600 wetland parks and a large number of wetland protection communities, with a wetland protection rate of 52.65%. Among them, the area of 63 wetlands in the mainland was 3.7275 million hectares, an increase compared with 2019. The mainland has included wetlands of international conservation significance in the list of wetlands of international importance, so that many important wetlands have been rescued and protected. At the same time, the construction of the rule of law in wetland protection has been strengthened, the Wetland Protection Law has been promulgated, 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities have successively issued wetland protection regulations, and the national and provincial levels have formulated the Wetland Protection and Restoration System Plan and the Implementation Plan. In addition, the mainland has deepened cooperation in implementation of the Convention, deeply participated in the affairs and rules-making of the Convention, and carried out extensive international cooperation and exchanges, making important contributions to the global wetland protection and rational utilization.
It is reported that the mainland will strengthen the supervision of internationally important wetlands, actively carry out wetland ecological restoration, strengthen the prevention and control of alien species, improve wetland management capabilities, and gradually realize the accurate protection and management of internationally important wetlands.
Source: China Natural Resources Daily
Text: Zhang Jinping
Photo: Chen Shou'an, Feng Erhui, Li Shijun
Editor: Zhao Lei
Preliminary: Cheng Xiujuan
Review: Tang Xiaojun
Review: Zhou Xing