Interview: China plays major role in global wetland preservation, says Convention on Wetlands official

VICTORIA FALLS, Zimbabwe, July 23 (Xinhua) -- China has been playing a major role in global wetland preservation, Musonda Mumba, secretary general of the Convention on Wetlands, said on Wednesday.

In an interview with Xinhua ahead of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP15), which is set to officially open Thursday in the resort city of Victoria Falls in the Matabeleland North Province of Zimbabwe, Mumba said China has made strides in wetland management and provided notable guidance in global preservation efforts.

"Most of the wetland cities that are accredited in the world are in China, and there has been a demonstration of the intersection between the ecological and the developmental coexistence," she said.

Running from Wednesday to July 31 under the theme of "Protecting Wetlands for Our Common Future," COP15 brings together representatives of 172 governments to strengthen international commitments for wetland conservation and to highlight the vital role of wetlands in sustaining ecological health, biodiversity, and climate resilience.

Mumba said China has played a major role in wetland preservation, adding that by the time China hosted COP14 in November 2022, there had already been the adoption of the wetland law by the Chinese government, which demonstrated the country's commitment.

"There was deep commitment and connection to make sure that the commonization and the lessons from China are really demonstrated to the world, and the world can learn from that," said Mumba.

China, which held the presidency and also served on the Standing Committee at COP14, has also provided leadership in making sure that all the draft resolutions made at COP14 were dealt with and delivered in a timely manner, she said.

The secretary general noted that due to China's efforts in raising visibility, there has been a spike in interest in global wetland conservation over the past years.

"What I want to see more is how China can share with other contracting parties. There are 172 countries in the world that are members of the convention. Can they share their lessons on wetland inventories? A lot of countries are really struggling with the wetland inventory mechanism, data collection, and how that data is used across all sectors of government," she said.

"If you're protecting something and there is no enforcement mechanism, you need that enforcement mechanism, and China has done that very well, and those lessons can be shared with other countries to take forward so that other countries can learn from China," she added.