Tibetannet

A view of the Yani Wetland Tourism Zone in Tibet's Nyingchi city. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Southwest China's Tibet autonomous region has been improving its legal system and standard policies to enhance the protection of wetlands in recent years, and wetlands have played a vital role in the region's comfortable climate, China Tibet News reported on Tuesday.

According to the region's forestry and grassland bureau, official regulations such as the Tibet Wetland Protection Regulation, Lhasa City Wetland Protection and Management Regulation, and the Lhalu Wetland Protection Zone Management Regulation have formed a solid foundation for legal wetland protection.

According to the region's second wetland resource survey, the region's total wetland size hit more than six million hectares, accounting for 5.3 percent of the region's surface area, and the region's wetland size ranks second in all of China.

Among the wetlands, natural wetlands account for more than 99 percent of the region's total, including three million hectares of lake wetlands, two million hectares of marsh wetlands, 430,000 hectares of riverine wetlands, and 0.5 hectares of constructed wetlands.

Wetlands, forests and oceans are called the globe's three greatest ecosystems and deemed the "earth's kidney". The Tibet autonomous region is China's key ecological barrier, and the work of wetland protection and development is an essential part of the construction of an ecological civilization.

According to the bureau, the region is one China's most diversified regions in terms of wetland categories, numbers, environment and features.