(Yicai) July 25 -- Nine additional Chinese cities have received International Wetland City accreditation, the Ramsar Convention’s top honor, bringing China’s total to 22 and underscoring the country’s global leadership in wetland conservation.

The nine awarded the designation at the 15th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands held in Zimbabwe yesterday were:

- Chongming in Shanghai

- Dali in Yunnan province

- Fuzhou in Fujian province

- Hangzhou and Wenzhou in Zhejiang province

- Jiujiang in Jiangxi province

- Lhasa in Xizang Autonomous Region

- Suzhou in Jiangsu province

- Yueyang in Hunan province.

The convention is an international treaty for the conservation and wise use of wetland areas that was adopted in 1971 in Ramsar, Iran, and came into force in 1975. It has 172 contracting parties, and so far, 74 cities around the world have received its International Wetland City accreditation.

China has made remarkable progress in wetland conservation, providing valuable experience for global efforts, said Musonda Mumba, the convention’s executive secretary.

Chongming, located on the Yangtze River Delta, is the world’s largest estuarine alluvial island, with nearly 70 percent of its area covered by wetland. Lhasa’s Lalu Wetland National Nature Reserve is the highest-altitude and largest urban natural wetland globally.

Jiujiang is an important stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, a major migratory route for waterbirds. It is often called the ‘Kingdom of Rare Birds’ and the ‘Paradise for Migratory Birds.’

Editors: Tang Shihua, Futura Costaglione