CBPF: Demonstration of Estuarine Biodiversity Conservation, Restoration, and Protected Area Networking

The goal of the Project is to improve existing efforts to conserve biodiversity in China’s major estuarine ecosystems. The Project’s specific objective is to mainstream the conservation of estuarine biodiversity in economic sector development plans and develop a series of “best practices” based on experiences derived from project supported field activities focusing on the creation of protected area networks and wetland conservation and restoration in the Yellow and Pearl River Estuaries. This would be achieved through: (i) addressing policy gaps and/or institutional failures to reinforce government efforts to create and conserve estuarine ecosystems; (ii) strengthening of individual marine protected areas (MPAs) to better achieve their conservation objectives; (iii) creation of new MPAs where gap analysis indicates that examples of critical habitats and species remain outside of conservation protection; (iv) establishment of MPA networks composed of existing and / or the inclusion of new protected areas; (v) restoration of degraded wetland habitats; (vi) facilitating closer collaboration and improved data collection and interpretation among agencies responsible for monitoring ecological conditions in the two Estuaries; (vii) building institutional capacity for mainstreaming the conservation of estuarine biodiversity and ecosystems into policies and development planning of economic sectors; (viii) promotion of increased public awareness of the long-term significance of biodiversity resources in these two deltaic ecosystems and the role MPAs and networks play in their conservation and management; and (ix) the development and dissemination of a series of “best practices.”