February 2 is the 29th World Wetland Day. The theme of this year's World Wetland Day is "Protecting wetlands and building the future together." The reporter learned from the State Forestry and Grassland Administration that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has continued to promote wetland protection and restoration, organized and implemented more than 3,700 wetland protection and restoration projects, added and restored more than 1 million hectares of wetlands, and the national wetland area has stabilized at more than 56.35 million hectares. More than 2,200 wetland nature reserves of various types have been established, and the ecological conditions of important wetlands have been significantly improved.

In recent years, my country's wetland protection laws and regulations have been continuously improved, and the Wetland Protection Law and the Wetland Protection Regulations of various provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have been issued and implemented, providing strong legal guarantees for wetland protection. Organize and implement the "National Wetland Protection Plan (2022-2030)", and a total of 82 internationally important wetlands were designated nationwide, 13 international wetland cities were certified, 58 nationally important wetlands and 1,153 provincially important wetlands were identified, and a wetland hierarchical management system was initially established. Continue to carry out comprehensive monitoring of forest and grassland wetlands, regularly publish the white paper "Ecological Status of China's International Important Wetlands", and conduct special investigations on the national peat bog wetland carbon reservoirs.

Accelerate the implementation of special actions for mangrove protection and restoration. In the past five years, more than 8,800 hectares of mangroves have been built and 8,200 hectares of mangroves have been restored. At present, the area of ​​mangroves in my country has reached 30,300 hectares, an increase of about 8,300 hectares from the beginning of this century, making it one of the few countries in the world with a net increase in mangroves. The International Mangrove Center was officially established in Shenzhen.

At the same time, vigorously promote the implementation of the "Special Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Mutual Flower Rice and Grass (2022-2025)", effectively prevent and control the invasion of alien species and maintain the health and safety of wetland ecosystems. As of the end of 2024, the national area of ​​eliminating and treating meridians reached 73,300 hectares, accounting for 89.4% of the total task, successfully curbing the unlimited spread of eliminating and eliminating meridians.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of the National Wetland Park. Over the past 20 years, a total of 903 national wetland parks have been established across the country, effectively protecting 2.4 million hectares of wetlands and driving regional economic growth of more than 50 billion yuan. At the same time, about 90% of national wetland parks are open to the public for free, and wetland parks have become an important green space shared by the people.

In the next step, the National Forestry and Grassland Administration will fully implement the "Wetland Protection Law", promote the construction of wetland protection and restoration system, investigation and monitoring system, and protection and supervision system, accelerate the implementation of two special action plans for mangrove protection and restoration and mutual flower rice and grass prevention and control, and complete the planned tasks with high standards. Actively support the construction and operation of the International Mangrove Center. Coordinate the protection and rational use of national wetland parks, explore the "wetland + culture + tourism" development model, and promote the high-quality development of wetland protection.