China's Blue Bay Restoration Initiative was officially named a flagship global nature restoration program by the United Nations (UN) on Thursday. This occurred during the seventeenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17), held in Yerevan, Armenia.
This initiative is implemented jointly by China's Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Finance. This marks the second recognition at the national level for a Chinese environmental program under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, making China the first country to receive such an award twice.
The Blue Bay Restoration Initiative was selected from over 200 applications and more than 80 nominations submitted by governments. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme, noted that it is one of the most promising, ambitious, and inspiring examples of large-scale ecosystem restoration globally.
According to Andersen, the program aims to restore over 150,000 hectares of coastal wetlands and more than 2,000 kilometers of coastline by 2030, which will bring long-term benefits to local communities.