BEIJING: Nine Chinese cities, including Dali in Yunnan province, Lhasa in the Xizang autonomous region, Fuzhou in Fujian province and Yueyang in Hunan province, were recently designated as international wetland cities, marking the third such set of cities announced after 2018 and 2022.
At the 64th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ramsar Convention, which was held in Gland, Switzerland, in late January, the addition of 31 cities to the Wetland City Accreditation program was announced. Currently, there are 74 accredited wetland cities around the world, with 22 of them in China.
According to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, wetlands are often referred to as “the kidneys of the Earth”, because they play a crucial role in purifying water, regulating climate and maintaining biodiversity.
By prohibiting aquaculture to enable restoration of the wetland ecosystem, more than 55 percent of the Fujian Minjiang River Estuary Wetlands, located in Fuzhou’s Changle district, has recovered its ecological functions, making it an important habitat for the black-faced spoonbill, a globally endangered species, the administration said.
Yueyang in Hunan initiated its wetland conservation efforts in the 1980s and established the East Dongting Lake Nature Reserve. The city has achieved a wetland conservation rate of 67 percent, with over 300 species of birds living there, including 18 species of first-class nationally protected birds, according to the local government.
In the process of continuous improvement of the wetland environment, a series of bird-watching activities related to culture and tourism have also driven the area’s economic development, the local government said.
Musonda Mumba, secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention, said last month that China has integrated wetland protection with urban development through scientific planning, providing replicable experiences for the world. –The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item