Healthy wetlands for healthy people

Tomorrow is World Wetlands Day. The theme of this year is Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People, which is meant to emphasize that only with healthy wetlands can there be healthy life for everyone on the planet.

China is rich in wetlands because of its diverse geology, a long coastline, a large river network and large number of big lakes. It boasts 70 million hectares of wetland, accounting for 10 percent of the world wetland areas.

These wetlands in the form of marshes, lakes, coastal areas, river estuaries, reservoirs and paddy fields provide ideal wintering, staging and breeding sites for more than 200 species of birds. China has more than 200 of 947 internationally important wetlands in Asia, about 20 percent of the areas in the region.