International Event Held to Strengthen Wetland Conservation in Cold Regions during COP 14

(ECNS) -- The International Symposium on the Protection and Restoration of Wetland Ecosystem Functions in Cold Regions was held both online and offline on Thursday bringing some 200 participants from six international organizations and five countries such as USA, Russia, Britain and China.

At the symposium, Initiative on the Protection and Restoration of Wetland Ecosystem Functions in Cold Regions was adopted.

The event was co-hosted by National and Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Wetland and Ecological Conservation, International Centre on Space Technologies for Natural and Cultural Heritage (HIST) under the Auspices of UNESCO, Heilongjiang Society of Wetland Biodiversity and Heilongjiang Society of Forestry.

The opening remarks were delivered by Dr. Jerker Tamelander, Director of Science and Policy of the Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands, Dr. LIU Chunyan, Director of Heilongjiang Academy of Sciences Dr. NI Hongwei, Director of Heilongjiang Academy of Forestry, and Dr. CHEN Fulong, Deputy Director of HIST.

14 experts from domestic and overseas research institutes were invited to deliver speeches on wetland protection, monitoring, sustainable development, and the carbon cycling of the wetlands.

In particular, Prof. QIU Yubao, Research Scientists of the Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr. LUO Lei, Associate Professor and Head of First Research Department of HIST made presentations themed "A perspective of earth observations for the wetland monitoring in Cold Regions" and "Remote sensing monitoring and assessment of wetlands natural heritage" respectively.

The Initiative on the Protection and Restoration of Wetland Ecosystem Functions in Cold Regions was adopted at the symposium. It calls for experts and decision makers on wetland protection and management to attach great importance to the science-based restoration and reasonable use of the wetlands and actively make suggestions on the promotion of healthy and sustainable development of the wetland ecosystem in cold regions.

As the Global Wetland Outlook: Special Edition 2021 released by Secretariat of the Convention on Wetlands stated, people’s health and livelihoods depend on well-managed wetlands. It is our shared responsibility to protect the wetlands. This symposium plays an important role in advancing global collaboration on wetland conservation.

The symposium was among activities of China as the host country of the ongoing 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands (COP14) which was held in a hybrid format in Wuhan, China on 5-13 November, 2022.