Wang Jingli

wangjingli0715@163.com

SHENZHEN’S Futian mangrove was among the 18 wetlands in China that were designated in 2022 as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration announced Thursday on the occasion of the 27th World Wetlands Day, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province.

Following the expansion, the number of Wetlands of International Importance hit 82 in China, covering a surface area of 7.647 million hectares, the fourth-largest in the world, according to the administration.

In her video message to the press conference, Musonda Mumba, secretary-general of the Ramsar Convention, expressed thanks to China for its leadership role as the host country and president of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14).

She said that China would lead the development of global wetland protection in the next three years.

Futian mangrove wetland stretches from the mouth of Xinzhou River in the east to Shenzhen Bay Park in the west, running about 6 kilometers along the coastline.

It has also become an important stopover site in the East Asian-Australasian Flyway for nearly 100,000 migratory birds every winter.

The mangrove wetland area includes Futian Mangrove Nature Reserve and Futian Mangrove Ecological Park.

Shenzhen is rich in wetland resources and is home to 480 species of wild vascular plants, 24 species of mangrove plants, and 156 types of water birds and wetland-dependent birds. The total area of the city’s wetlands (excluding the Shenshan Special Cooperation Zone) is about 35,000 hectares.

Mangrove is Shenzhen’s city tree and is one of the most efficient carbon capture and storage systems on the planet.

Shenzhen has some 296.18 hectares of mangrove forests, which are mainly distributed in Futian District and partly in Bao’an and Nanshan districts, and Dapeng New Area, according to data published by the local planning and natural resources authority Wednesday.

The total area of nearly 14,000 hectares of mangrove forests in Guangdong Province accounts for 56.9% of the country’s total mangrove area, ranking first in the country, according to Shenzhen Special Zone Daily.

Futian Mangrove Nature Reserve, located in the northeast part of Shenzhen Bay, covers a total area of 367.6 hectares, about the size of 514.9 standard soccer pitches.

It includes 352.7 hectares of wetlands and has been selected on the list of key national wetlands in 2020, public data showed.

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China will build an international mangrove center in Shenzhen, said President Xi Jinping in a video speech at the opening ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) last November. Later that month, the COP14 meeting held in Geneva, Switzerland officially passed a draft resolution on building an international mangrove center in Shenzhen.

This year, Shenzhen will advance the high-quality preparatory work on the center’s establishment, unveil 2035 wetland protection planning, and promote the formulation and legislation of wetland protection regulations.

According to Shenzhen Wetland Protection Plan (2021-2035), by 2035, Shenzhen will strive to achieve a 50% wetland protection rate, maintain a stable wetland area, effectively improve the ecological status of coastal wetlands, optimize the quality of wetland ecological space in built-up areas and build itself into an international wetland city.

Eighteen wetlands in China were designated in 2022 as Wetlands of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration announced Thursday on the occasion of the 27th World Wetlands Day.

The 18 new sites also include Beijing Wild Duck Lake Wetland, the nine turns and 18 bends on the Greater Khingan Range, and Baima Lake Wetland in Huai’an, Jiangsu Province.

Feb. 2 marks the World Wetlands Day, which is the date of the adoption of the Convention on Wetlands in 1971 in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The Ramsar Convention is an intergovernmental agreement dedicated to the conservation and rational use of wetland ecosystems. This year’s theme of World Wetlands Day is “It’s Time for Wetlands Restoration.”