Efforts by China to restore and protect its marine ecosystems have received international recognition after the country’s Blue Bay Restoration Initiative was named a 2026 United Nations World Restoration Flagship.
The recognition was announced in Yerevan, Armenia, during the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP17).
The initiative is led by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Finance and is the second nationwide programme from the country to receive the World Restoration Flagship honour. The first was the Shan-Shui Initiative, which was among the first global flagships recognised in 2022.
For countries such as Kenya, which also rely heavily on healthy coastal and marine ecosystems for fisheries, tourism and the livelihoods of coastal communities, China’s experience offers a reference point on the scale and coordination required to undertake long-term marine restoration.
The latest recognition makes China the first country to have two nationwide actions named World Restoration Flagships.
The World Restoration Flagship programme was jointly established by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization under the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration. It recognises large-scale ecosystem restoration programmes considered exemplary, representative and influential globally.
Initiatives from Colombia, Ethiopia, Italy and the United States were also recognised in the latest round.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Raimund Jehle, deputy regional representative for Europe and Central Asia at the Food and Agriculture Organization, highlighted the importance of healthy coastal ecosystems to biodiversity, food security and livelihoods.
“Healthy coastal ecosystems support fisheries, protect communities and strengthen resilience to climate change,” Jehle said.
He said restoring such ecosystems required cooperation across land and sea as well as different sectors and institutions, citing China’s Blue Bay Initiative as an example of an integrated approach that combines ecological restoration, coordinated governance and public investment.
The initiative builds on experience gained from the restoration of Yundang Lake in Xiamen, Fujian province, where China developed an integrated approach to land and sea management. The model has since been applied on a wider scale across the country’s coastal regions.
During the 13th Five-Year Plan period from 2016 to 2020 and the 14th Five-Year Plan period from 2021 to 2025, China’s central government allocated 36.63 billion yuan, equivalent to $5.5 billion, to coastal provinces for 194 major marine ecological restoration projects.
The projects resulted in the restoration of more than 150,000 hectares of coastal wetlands, management of Spartina alterniflora, an invasive cord grass species, and rehabilitation of more than 2,000 kilometres of coastline.
Zhong Chongjun, deputy director-general of the Department of Territorial Space Ecological Restoration at the Ministry of Natural Resources, said the international recognition reflected global acknowledgement of China’s progress in marine ecological protection and restoration.
He said the 194 projects had improved the quality and stability of key marine ecosystems, strengthened biodiversity conservation, expanded public access to quality coastal areas and improved the country’s capacity to prevent and mitigate coastal disasters.
Zhong also said the restoration efforts had strengthened China’s marine ecological security, noting that the country’s mangrove area had grown to 31,700 hectares.
China is among the few countries where mangrove coverage is continuing to expand, he said.
Wang Lei, director-general of the department, described the recognition as both “an honour and a responsibility”, saying China would use it as a new starting point for further restoration efforts.
“We will take this as a new start, continuing to implement actions for blue bays, beautiful shorelines and harmonious islands,” Wang said.
China’s next phase of marine restoration will focus on improving the quality and ecological functions of key ecosystems, including mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass beds and coastal salt marshes.
The broader objective is to deliver restoration projects that improve livelihoods, create employment and income opportunities and promote a development model based on harmony between people and the sea.
