China to promote high-quality development in wetlands conservation: Xi

BEIJING - China will pursue a modernization of harmony between humanity and nature, and promote high-quality development in the wetlands conservation cause, said President Xi Jinping on Saturday.

Xi made the remarks when delivering a speech via video at the opening ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) in China's Wuhan and Switzerland's Geneva.

"China has recently drawn up a layout plan of national parks. Under the plan, China will designate a number of national parks, accounting for about 10 percent of the country's land area," Xi said, adding that about 11 million hectares of wetlands will be incorporated in the national park system.

According to Xi, a national wetlands conservation plan and major conservation projects will be implemented in China. Also, China will promote international exchanges and cooperation to protect the four bird migration routes passing China and to build an international mangrove center in Shenzhen.

Xi noted that China has increased the area of wetlands to 56.35 million hectares, put in place a protection system, and enacted a Wetlands Conservation Law.

"Wetlands have become an integral part of many Chinese cities like Wuhan, making the cities notably more livable," Xi added.