Yancheng became one of 25 new cities that were awarded Wetland City Accreditation during the 59th meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, according to the Ramsar website (https://www.ramsar.org).

China has seven areas to win the honor that recognizes efforts to safeguard urban wetlands for people and nature. The other six are Hefei City in Anhui Province, Jining City in Shandong Province, Liangping District in Chongqing Municipality, Nanchang City in Jiangxi Province, Panjin City in Liaoning Province, and Wuhan City in Hubei Province.

The Convention on Wetlands introduced the Wetland City Accreditation scheme in 2017. The voluntary scheme encourages cities to value their natural or human-made wetlands and commit collective efforts to protect, sustainably manage and restore urban wetlands.

Yancheng started preparing for the application for the honor at the end of 2018 with systematic efforts to carry out overall protection, restoration and management, which have enhanced the ecological functions of wetlands, improved the quality of urban wetlands, and facilitated the harmonious development between humans and nature.

Yancheng has a well-preserved costal wetland area of 770,000 hectares. In 2019, China’s Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the coast of the Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf (Phase I), located in Yancheng, were inscribed on the World Heritage List as a natural site at the 43rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee. Yancheng is the only prefecture-level city in China to boast two Wetlands of International Importance and one nature site as a world heritage.

(CFP Photo)

Yancheng has strengthened efforts to explore the ecological value of its heritage, set up a special agency to coordinate the management of the wetlands, improved riveside environment, and built micro wetlands and other ecological restoration projects. The city's protected wetlands now cover an area of 416,000 hectares.