Against the backdrop of surging coastal development, China has established a major new network of nature reserves to save the country's rich and diversified marine ecological resources.

Since the beginning of 1989, when the State Council approved the country's first five national marine nature reserves, China has established 21 national nature reserves and 50 local nature reserves, covering a total area of 2.38 million hectares.

On the protected list are key marine ecological systems such as islands, wetlands, mangrove forests and coral reef.

It also includes sea creatures ranging from the rare, such as the white dolphin, to the common, such as shells and algae.

The State Oceanographic Administration (SOA) has vowed to establish 20 more national nature reserves to protect valuable marine ecological resources during the country's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).

And next year might see two new ones created in South China's Guangdong and Fujian provinces, with one likely to protect the white dolphin and the other set aside for mangroves.

"Investigations into and examinations of the two sites have concluded. We are now waiting for the State Council's final approval of the reserves," said Wang Bin, an official with the SOA's Marine Environment Protection Department.

(China Daily December 31, 2002)