In order to welcome the arrival of the 28th "World Wetlands Day", on January 26, 2024, the "World Wetlands Day" publicity activity jointly organized by the Yantai Municipal Bureau of Natural Resources and Planning and the Zhifu District Natural Resources Bureau was held in Yantai Binhai Square. A total of 10 exhibition boards, 8 banners were hung, and more than 1,200 copies of environmental protection publicity bags and clear papers were distributed at the event site, calling on all sectors of society to jointly protect the ecological environment of wetlands and protect the "kidneys of the earth" by popularizing wetland protection laws and regulations, publicizing the ecological value of wetlands, and maintaining the importance of wetland biodiversity.
World Wetlands Day has been celebrated annually on 2 February since 1997, and this year's theme is "Wetlands and Human Well-being" and the slogan is "People and Wetland Life Intertwined". Wetlands, together with forests and oceans, are known as the three major ecosystems in the world, and are also the most valuable ecosystems, which are an important foundation for maintaining regional ecological security, and play a variety of ecological, economic and cultural functions such as water conservation, water purification, biodiversity maintenance, flood storage and drought control, climate regulation, carbon sequestration and storage, and food provision, which are closely related to human survival and development, and are known as the "kidneys of the earth" and "species gene bank".
Yantai City, located in the northeast of the Shandong Peninsula, is an important part of the "Jiaodong Peninsula Ecological Green Heart" and "Coastal Ecological Reserve". Yantai has a large wetland area, many types and rich biodiversity. The wetland area of the city is 185,258.07 hectares, ranking third in the province, accounting for 9.93% of the total wetland area of the province. There are 115 species of birds in the wetlands of the city, belonging to 55 genera of 9 orders, 25 families, 72% of which are migratory birds, and 26% of migratory birds, including 16 species of national first- and second-class key protected birds, which is one of the important habitats and breeding grounds and migratory places of waterbirds in the mainland.
Up to now, Yantai has built 5 wetland nature reserves, 7 wetland parks, 5 marine parks, 8 marine special protection areas, 1 coastal scenic spot, and 9 national aquatic germplasm resources protection areas, all of which are directly related to wetland protection. In addition, Changdao National Park has been included in the overall layout plan of the national park, and various forms of nature reserves provide carriers and supports for the protection of wetland resources.