YEREVAN, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Diverse conservation efforts in China are demonstrating how biodiversity can be safeguarded beyond designated protected areas through cooperation, with local communities, researchers, businesses and government agencies playing complementary roles, a Chinese conservationist has said at a United Nations biodiversity event.
At a thematic event titled "Multi-Stakeholder Strategies and Actions for Biodiversity Conservation," held at the China Pavilion during the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17) in the Armenian capital of Yerevan, conservation efforts at China's Weitou Bay Wetland were highlighted as a successful example of such efforts.
More than 1 percent of the estimated global population of critically endangered spoon-billed sandpipers has been recorded wintering at Weitou Bay Wetland in Quanzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, in each of the past three winters, said Yan Baohua, secretary-general of China's Mangrove Conservation Foundation (MCF). The wetland is not a designated protected area.
The spoon-billed sandpiper breeds in Russia's Far East and migrates thousands of kilometers along the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, relying on coastal stopovers and wintering habitats. Yet only about 15 percent of the predicted suitable intertidal habitats for the species lie within protected areas, according to a study cited by Yan.
The MCF and Beijing Forestry University launched a spoon-billed sandpiper conservation project in 2018, Yan said, noting that surveys conducted across southern China from 2019 to 2026 identified additional wintering sites, many outside protected areas, highlighting the need to extend conservation efforts beyond the existing protected-area network.
At Weitou Bay Wetland, conservation efforts had long been driven largely by local bird-watching volunteers. In March 2025, the MCF partnered with local bird-watching groups and government departments to establish a conservation station to better coordinate protection efforts. Bird-watching groups now conduct regular monitoring and patrols, while local prosecutors contribute to habitat protection through public-interest litigation. Villagers are also working to establish their own patrol teams.
Another example of community involvement comes from Sanniang Bay in Qinzhou, south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where fishermen in a community outside a nature reserve are helping protect horseshoe crabs accidentally caught in fishing nets.
Song Xin of the Farmers' Seed Network said that when her team visited the area in 2019, adult horseshoe crabs caught in fishing nets were sold to local restaurants, while subadults were discarded because they had no commercial value.
With support from the network, local residents established a rescue and release group in 2021 to return accidentally caught horseshoe crabs to the sea.
Song said reports of fewer horseshoe crabs in local fishermen's nets prompted her team and scientists to survey the area. They found that Sanniang Bay hosts adult and subadult horseshoe crabs, while spawning grounds and juvenile habitats lie farther east near the Dafeng River estuary, underscoring the need to extend conservation efforts beyond the bay.
Biodiversity conservation efforts are also extending into urban spaces.
At Nanjing Hongshan Forest Zoo in east China's Jiangsu Province, nearly 700 species of native wildlife, including around 130 bird species, have been recorded, according to Wei Ye, director of sustainability at the zoo.
An artificial lake once lined with hardened banks has undergone ecological restoration, creating more natural shorelines and improving the connection between the water and shoreline vegetation. Wei said Chinese water deer had given birth near the restored lake at the zoo this year.
The examples illustrate China's efforts to explore other effective area-based conservation measures (OECMs), which complement protected areas.
Recognized under Target 3 of the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, the OECMs contribute to the goal of effectively conserving at least 30 percent of the world's land, inland waters, coastal and marine areas by 2030.
Madhu Rao, chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) World Commission on Protected Areas, said the target could not be achieved through protected areas alone.
"One of the big advantages of OECMs is that they allow us to recognize the stewardship of nature by non-state actors, as it's so well established in the example from China," she said.
The thematic event was organized by the All-China Environment Federation and the China Environmental Protection Foundation. ■
