A panoramic view of Yellow River National Wetland Park, located in Baotou’s Jiuyuan district. [Photo/Baotou Evening News]

Baotou -- in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region -- has been making great efforts to beef up the protection of its wetlands and environmental restoration in the Yellow River National Wetland Park, according to local media reports.

Local officials said the Yellow River National Wetland Park, located to the south of Baotou city, sits at a relatively high latitude.

Covering 122 square meters, the park comprises Zhaojun Isle, Xiaobai River, Nanhai Lake, Gongzhonghai and Chilechuan. It was designated by the State Forestry Administration as the first national wetland park in Baotou.

Officials said that in the past five years, the city has strived to implement eight national wetland protection and restoration projects and secured funding of more than 54 million yuan ($7.71 million) for them.

They added that in order to strengthen its wetlands protection, the city cleared and demolished more than 40 illegal buildings that existed there, cracked down on more than 460 illegal acts of environmental destruction and restored more than 1,300 mu or 87 hectares, of farmland to wetland.

In 2019, the municipal government issued the Implementation Opinions on the Protection and Construction of Baotou Yellow River National Wetland Park.

This set out a scientific and systematic plan for the protection and restoration of the Yellow River Wetland.

Through its efforts, the area covered by the city’s wetlands has remained above 1.4 million mu, their water quality has fundamentally improved, the habitat of rare birds has increased significantly and the plant community has become increasingly diversified.