China recovers over 2,000 hectares of coastal wetland

2017-06-09
Xinhua

BEIJING — China has recovered more than 2,000 hectares of coastal wetland in the past five years after a series of projects for marine ecosystem conservation were launched, the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) announced on June 8.

The projects also helped to rehabilitate more than 190 kilometers of coastline, over 6,500 hectares of coastal belt and over 1,200 hectares of beaches, SOA figures show.

According to an eight-year national marine survey conducted by the SOA and wrapped up in 2012, coastal wetlands have shrunk by some 57 percent compared with the total wetland area in the 1950s.

The SOA issued a guideline for strengthening management and protection of coastal wetland earlier this year, vowing to restore no less than 8,500 hectares of coastal wetland by 2020.

To improve marine ecological environment protection, China plans to create a red-line system to delimit zones, creating areas where development is prohibited or limited.

The government has reduced the development intensity in the Bohai Sea by suspending approval of sea reclamation projects, arrangement of an annual sea reclamation quota and designation of temporary dumping areas.

China also established two national nature reserves and 59 national special reserves for marine protection in the past five years, according to the administration.