By LI Linxu 

Seven Chinese cities have been accredited as international wetland cities at the 59th meeting of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands' standing committee.

They are Hefei, Jining, Liangping, Nanchang, Panjin, Wuhan and Yangcheng.

A total of 25 cities were awarded international wetland city titles in this round of accreditation, in recognition of their exceptional efforts to safeguard urban wetlands.

Jinyin Lake Wetland Park in Wuhan, Hubei province. (PHOTO: VCG)

Amid rising pressure to jointly tackle the climate, pollution and biodiversity crises together, urban wetlands offer valuable nature-based solutions for healthier, prosperous and sustainable societies, said Martha Rojas Urrego, secretary general of the Convention on Wetlands.

Recognizing the importance of urban wetlands, the Convention on Wetlands introduced the Wetland City Accreditation scheme in 2015.

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.

Since then, only 43 cities in 17 countries have received this recognition, among which 13 cities are from China. Changde, Changshu, Dongying, Harbin, Haikou and Yinchuan were accredited as the first batch of international wetland cities in 2018.

The Wetland City Accreditation scheme is an important opportunity for cities and local governments to integrate wetland conservation and sustainable management with sustainable development and delivery of vital services, said Martha Rojas Urrego.