China will make a series of efforts to effectively protect 50 percent of its natural wetlands by 2010, said Jia Zhibang, State Forestry Administration (SFA) director.

By that time, the shrinking trend in the wetland area will be initially reversed and a wetland protection network basically will be formed, he said at a recent meeting on wetland protection.

The information appeared on Saturday on the SFA's website.

China has so far made significant progress in wetland protection, with 47 percent, or more than 17 million hectares of the country's wetlands, effectively protected, Jia said.

However, the overall situation of wetlands is not optimistic, he said, adding strong measures would be taken in such areas as laws and regulation, policies, investment and administrative systems, so as to step up wetland protection.

Statistics show China has established 18 national wetland parks and more than 470 wetland nature reserves, including 36 internationally recognized important wetlands.

China is rich in various types of wetlands, with a total area of 38.48 million hectares, ranking fourth in the world and first in Asia.

Jia said by 2030, the country's wetland nature reserves will reach 713, with over 90 percent of the wetlands effectively protected.

(Xinhua News Agency February 10, 2008)