As China's first coastal wetland type World Natural Heritage, the protection and governance practice of Yancheng Yellow Sea Wetland is an important embodiment of in-depth implementation of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. In recent years, Jiangsu Province has implemented the requirements of the Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China regarding "accelerating the implementation of major projects for the protection and restoration of important ecosystems", and has formed diversified governance subjects, governance methods and governance models focusing on the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland. However, there are still many prominent problems in terms of laws and regulations, management mechanisms, technological innovation, and international cooperation. It is necessary to form a new path of wetland protection and governance with Jiangsu characteristics on the basis of absorbing and learning from international successful experiences.
Learning from International Legal Experience to Improve and Optimize Laws and Regulations for Yellow Sea Wetland Protection and Governance
Compared with developed countries, the construction of laws and regulations system for wetland protection and governance in China started late and is still not perfect. There are contradictions between existing laws and regulations and actual needs, which fail to effectively solve problems such as unclear wetland ownership system and low public participation. Some nature reserves and wetland parks in the Yellow Sea Wetland have the problem of inconsistent subjects of ownership, use right and management right of wetland resources, leading to difficulties in implementing management rights and mismatches between economic benefit subjects and protection responsibility subjects.
To address the aforementioned problems, first, it is necessary to improve the relevant provisions for the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland at the legal level. Learn from Australia's Queensland wetland protection and governance experience, strengthen the delineation of independent ownership of wetland resources, and promote the solution to problems such as inconsistent subjects of ownership, use right and management right of wetland resources; second, strengthen the law enforcement for the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland. Learn from the experience of wetland protection and governance in San Francisco, USA, and establish a special court for ecological resources of the Yellow Sea Wetland; third, promote public participation in the legislation of Yellow Sea Wetland protection and governance. Learn from the legislative experience of countries such as the United Kingdom, South Korea, and Japan, incorporate the obligation of residents to participate in wetland protection and governance into the legal track, and reasonably guide the public to supervise and report wetland violations through a combination of online and offline methods.
Optimizing Management Mechanisms to Effectively Promote the Coordinated Progress of Government Governance and Social Participation
Currently, the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland mainly present the following two problems at the management level: first, the wetland-related working mechanisms need to be improved. The wetland ecological compensation mechanism in the heritage area needs to be optimized urgently, the mechanism for introducing professional wetland research talents needs to be implemented urgently, and the joint governance pattern of social public and social capital participating in the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland World Natural Heritage has not yet been formed; second, the relevant government departments need to coordinate. Relevant government departments such as natural resources, culture and tourism, publicity, and finance lack synergy in the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland, and ecological advantages have not been effectively converted into economic value.
In view of this, first, optimize the collaborative working mechanism of government departments. Learn from Poland's wetland collaborative governance policy, and form a multi-dimensional collaborative governance pattern for wetlands by strengthening the organic collaboration between departments such as natural resources, culture and tourism, publicity, finance, and talents; second, improve the mechanism for converting wetland ecological value. Learn from the "sustainable tourism" experience of Europe's Wadden Sea (the world's first intertidal wetland heritage) to enhance the eco-tourism value of the Yellow Sea Wetland. At the same time, innovate and promote pilot projects such as "wetland restoration + green finance" and "wetland restoration + blue carbon sink" to promote the conversion of ecological advantages of the Yellow Sea Wetland into economic value; third, establish a mechanism for social capital participation. Learn from experiences such as the U.S. Wetland Mitigation Banking and Canada's alternative fee compensation system, and reduce the government's financial expenditure burden on wetland restoration by introducing market mechanisms and third-party institutions. In addition, actively encourage private investment and cooperation, try to adopt PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model, franchising, and establishment of foundations to continuously expand the funding sources for protection and governance work.
Promoting Technological Innovation and Application to Effectively Improve the Governance Effect of Digital-Intelligent Empowerment for Coastal Protection
The innovative application of modern science and technology is conducive to the accurate monitoring and protection of wetland biodiversity, thereby improving the governance effect of the Yellow Sea Wetland World Natural Heritage. Aiming at the current problems in the application of technological innovation in the protection and governance of the Yellow Sea Wetland, first, learn from the experience of wetland protection and governance in Oregon, USA, and build an integrated "space-air-land-sea" monitoring system. Integrate GIS (Geographic Information System), RS (Remote Sensing Technology) and Beidou positioning technology to build a smart monitoring platform for the Yellow Sea Wetland. Deploy IoT sensors at key ecological nodes, introduce AI algorithms to develop an "ecological risk early warning system", and realize intelligent prediction of problems such as the spread of Spartina alterniflora and the shrinkage of migratory bird habitats; second, build an ecological big data center for the Yellow Sea Wetland. Formulate unified data collection standards, integrate data resources from national monitoring stations and automatic observation points, and develop a "wetland brain" big data system with independent intellectual property rights. At the same time, establish a data sharing mechanism, open 70% of non-confidential data to scientific research institutions, and promote the formation of a collaborative innovation ecology of industry, university, research and application; third, build a localized ecological restoration technology system in line with the characteristics of Yancheng coastal wetlands. Universities, research institutes and enterprises jointly build a coastal wetland restoration technology laboratory, focus on tackling key technologies such as innovative application of NbS (Nature-based Solutions), focusing on the research and development of core technologies such as intertidal microtopography transformation, salt-tolerant plant community reconstruction, and hydrological connectivity restoration, and establish a full-chain innovation platform of "mechanism research - technology research and development - engineering demonstration" to form a replicable and promotable standardized restoration model, providing a Chinese plan for global coastal wetland protection.
Strengthening International Exchanges and Cooperation to Deepen the Construction of a Long-term Mechanism for Global Ecological Governance Cooperation
Strengthening international exchanges and cooperation in the field of wetlands is conducive to building a platform for mutual learning in wetland protection and governance, thereby deepening global ecological governance cooperation. First, strengthen international people-to-people cooperation in the field of wetlands. Based on the Global Coastal Forum, tell Chinese stories and Yancheng stories well, and promote the international communication of the Yellow Sea Wetland. At the same time, actively integrate into important international wetland organizations, and strengthen international exchanges in wetland park construction, wetland rule of law experience, and carbon sink value realization; second, strengthen international technological cooperation in the field of wetlands. Learn from Germany's wetland open cooperation governance experience, build a "1+N" international cooperation network, establish an annual "Yellow Sea Wetland Technology Innovation Award", and deepen scientific research interaction and technological cooperation with foreign (overseas) scientific research institutions in wetland restoration and governance, biodiversity protection, etc. Take the lead in building a Northeast Asian Wetland Ecological Protection and Governance Community, and strive to realize the co-protection and sharing of wetland resources in the Yellow Sea region; third, strengthen international industrial cooperation in the field of wetlands. Actively expand international cooperation in related industries such as Yellow Sea Wetland ecological agriculture, environmental protection equipment manufacturing, and bird watching tourism and health care, and participate in building the global value chain and regional value chain of the Yellow Sea Wetland; fourth, strengthen international legal cooperation in the field of wetlands. Actively participate in legal exchanges in the field of wetland protection and governance hosted by governments, international organizations, and international academic circles, strengthen the connection and alignment of policies, standards and mechanisms between the Yellow Sea Wetland and international wetland protection and governance, learn from each other's strengths, and jointly promote the protection and high-quality development of coastal wetlands.
(Qian Lulu is a researcher at the Yancheng Local Culture International Communication Research Center; Ye Lei is the Executive Director of the Yancheng Local Culture International Communication Research Center; Lü Huihua is the Dean of the Yancheng Yellow Sea Wetland Research Institute. This article was published in Xinhua Daily on October 30, 2025.)
