China will speed up the wetland biodiversity conservation
mainstreaming process and implement the Ramsar Convention on
Wetlands to enhance wetland protection and management, a senior
official of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) said on
Sunday.
Mainstreaming biodiversity refers to "the mainstreaming of
biodiversity conservation on land resources development and the
work of various departments: put biodiversity protection into
agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourism and other productive
sectors in order to protect global environmental benefits",
according to forestry authorities.
Yin Hong, deputy director of the SFA, said at an international
conference on protection and sustainable use of wetland held in
Yueyang of Hunan province that China has made notable progress in
the protection of wetland ecosystem.
He said China has established 470 wetland nature reserves and
more than 30 pieces of wetland were designated as "Wetlands of
International Importance" in the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, and
has formed a wetland protection network system.
"However, due to industrialization and urbanization, coupled
with a large population, the wetland protection is still facing
challenges brought about by reduction in the number of wetlands,
habitat fragmentation, wetland ecological degradation. Against this
background, the mainstreaming of biodiversity conservation is of
special significance," Yin said.
The State Council has approved the establishment of a national
committee on implementation of the "Convention on Wetlands" earlier
this year. Yin said this move will further strengthen coordination
of different organizations on the protection of wetlands, and will
promote management of inter-departmental and cross-regional
cooperation.
The Ramsar Convention on Wetlands, signed in Ramsar, Iran, in
1971, is an intergovernmental treaty which provides the framework
for national action and international cooperation for the
conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources.
(Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2007)
