The leaves of these trees – in an expansive national nature reserve in Inner Mongolia – turn wonderfully rich colors in late autumn. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Wuhan Declaration – a major achievement of the ongoing 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands – was released on Sunday, a document that is committed to mobilizing more resources to take more effective action for wetlands protection by 2030.

The meeting began on Nov 5 and continues through to Nov 13 in Wuhan city – capital of Central China's Hubei province – and in Geneva, Switzerland.

In recent years, the Inner Mongolia autonomous region in North China has been continuously protecting its wetlands and safeguarding the green "Great Wall" on the country's northern border.

A giant flock of migratory birds takes wing in a wetland in the autonomous region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

According to the third national land survey data bulletin of Inner Mongolia, the wetland area of the whole region covers 3.81 million hectares.

Of that, 701,700 hectares are forest swamps, accounting for 18.42 percent of the total; 214,800 hectares are scrub swamps, accounting for 5.64 percent; and 938,100 hectares are inland tidal flats, accounting for 24.63 percent.

At present, Inner Mongolia has 83 nature reserves with wetlands as protected objects, 53 national wetland parks, 10 wetland parks at the autonomous region level, four internationally important wetlands and 47 autonomous-region important wetlands.

A majestic migrating bird moves through the air over a wetland in the region. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]