Cai, a research fellow with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that China has the law on forestry and the law on marine resources, but it has not had a separate law on wetland protection.

Although the Constitution, the criminal law and the civil procedure law have defined the important position of the protection and sustainable utilization of resources, but they have not codified the term "wetland".

He said that the NPC should make a wetland law as soon as possible to specify the scope of application, ownership of wetland resources, principles and measures for wetland protection, development and utilization and legal responsibilities and related departments should formulate detail rules for implementing the law.

The wetland resources of China total 65.94 million ha. Ranking first in Asia and fourth in the world. Since the 1970s, China has demarcated 260 wetland as natural reserves, covering 16 million hectares.

China became a signatory party to the international convention on wetland in 1992.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2002)