Economic boom in coastal areas harms vulnerable wetlands

China's coastal wetlands, especially mudflats, continue to diminish at astonishing speed as coastal-based economies boom.

While planning the marine function zones, experts of the National Bureau of Oceanography point out that China should set up protection zones covering 11 percent of its offshore areas, and the protected area should reach 5 percent of its total territorial sea before 2020.

"But the current figure is smaller than 1 percent," Wang Songlin, WWF China's marine program officer, says.