The National Forestry and Grassland Administration website announced the first list of 789 important habitats for terrestrial wildlife on Dec 20. These habitats protect 82.36 percent of national key protected terrestrial wildlife species. Jiangsu is home to 14 habitats on the list, one of which is in Qidong.

The Qidong Yangtze Estuary Wetland Important Habitat for Migratory Birds mainly protects animals such as the lesser sand plover, the spoon-billed sandpiper, the mandarin duck, and the black-faced spoonbill.

The current form of protection is the Jiangsu Nantong Qidong Yangtze Estuary (North Branch) Wetland Provincial Nature Reserve. The establishment of this nature reserve fills the gap in wetland research and the development of freshwater estuary wetland nature reserves in Jiangsu province in the transitional zone from subtropical to warm temperate regions of the large river mouth in China.

This is of great significance for protecting the wetland ecosystem and rare wildlife and maintaining the sustainable use of Yangtze aquatic resources. It is also of great scientific value for understanding the evolution of the Yangtze Estuary wetland ecosystem.

A large number of birds shelter at a wetland in Qidong, a county-level city in Nantong, East China's Jiangsu province. [Photo/WeChat account: qdrmt0513]