China's southern island province of Hainan has made notable progress in the protection and restoration of mangrove forests, which serve as vital habitats for a variety of threatened species.
Mangrove forests are unique ecosystems that straddle the border between land and sea. They usually host important biodiversity and protect coasts from erosion. China has been expanding mangrove forest coverage over the past few years as part of its ecological conservation efforts.
Established in the 1980s, the Dongzhai Port National Nature Reserve in Haikou City is the country's first and the largest contiguous mangrove nature reserve, covering an area of over 3,300 hectares. The Sanjiang Bay ecological restoration project was launched in February last year, aiming to add over 100 hectares of mangroves to the reserve.
To ensure the diversity of restored mangrove species, the construction team has divided the land into 83 small afforestation groups and planted more than 20 species of mangroves, letting the different species intermingle in a diverse tapestry.
After over a year of afforestation, the more than 40 hectares of tidal flats in Sanjiang Bay have seen mangrove saplings sprouting green leaves.
"The seedlings planted in early 2023 have grown to nearly one meter high. The results are remarkable," said Li Pengwei, a technical worker for the Sanjiang Bay Ecological Restoration Project.
Currently, 229 species of birds have been spotted in Dongzhai Port, which is now home to 36 species of mangrove plants in 20 families, accounting for 97 percent of the country's total.
Hainan coastlines see progress in mangrove forest conservation
Serbia's cooperation with China has been the best as the two countries enjoy rock solid friendship and trust, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to the European country.
The Serbia president made the remarks in an exclusive interview with the China Central Television (CCTV) in Belgrade on Wednesday.
Vucic hailed the real friendship between Serbia and China.
"That time we were discovering each other. Now we know that there is a real friendship that's been established. Since then, we developed substantive trust between the top leadership of both countries. But I believe that there is a big change. We have never had anything against Chinese, never, ever. But now we like and we love Chinese people here, and we have nothing bad to say about our cooperation with China and Chinese state and Chinese people," he said.
"There were thousands of attempts from outside of the country in order to persuade us, to convince us that taking loans from China will create a dubious situation for fiscal systems of Serbia. But as you can see, an average public debt to GDP ratio in Europe now is 89.5 percent. And in Serbia it's 47 percent. We have no problems. We have always been cooperating in a very best manner with China," said the president.
The Serbian president hopes that more Chinese people will come to visit the country to better understand it.
"Apart from creating this trust and confidence in each other's decisions, in each other behavior within international public political arena. We developed our economic ties, trade ties and now it's time to go to another stage, a strategic partnership or how do we see a common future together. And at the same time, it's a also about people connecting to each other. That is, I believe, our task. And we expect more Chinese people to come to Serbia. I believe they feel at home here, and we like them and hope that this will bring more initiatives, different kind of initiatives, more businesses, more tourists, more people that would get to know many things about Serbia, Belgrade's history," said Vucic.
Xi will pay state visits to France, Serbia and Hungary from May 5 to 10.
Serbian president sees cooperation with China as best amid rock solid friendship, trust
