The city of Wuhan in central China has been selected as the host of the 14th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. CGTN's Xue Jingmeng tells us more about China's role in the treaty and its efforts to preserve wetlands.

The Ramsar Convention plays a unique role in championing the change of wetlands worldwide.

Today, about 170 Contracting Parties gathered to decide the candidate city to host the 14th Conference of Parties (COP14) in 2021.

Finally, Wuhan became the lucky one to be the host city.

BAO DAMING，DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL NATIONAL FORESTRY AND GRASSLAND ADMINISTRATION OF CHINA "China has been shifting its mindsets towards wetlands from destruction to conservation at present. Due to this effort, the decreasing of wetland in China is under effective control. The pace of wetland area diminishing is gradually slowing down. The COP14 will definitely help us to improve in all aspects, for example, system construction, wetland restoration, wetland evaluation, communication and public awareness."

The secretary general of RAMSAR Convention said that the Conference of Parties provides a platform to foster collaboration and partnership to conserve and use wetlands in a wise way.

MARTHA ROJAS URREGO, SECRETARY GENERAL RAMSAR CONVENTION "China is also now taking measures from the planning processes, from monitoring and from looking at how to balance conservation and development. So China has been providing leadership and has a lot to share in terms of how to conserve wetlands. So this is a great opportunity for China."

Signed in 1971, Ramsar Convention is the first intergovernmental environment convention.

Representatives of the Contracting Parties hold conference every three years so as to evaluate and monitor the work with a view to implementing the convention's objectives.