China's marine protection creates job opportunities, ensuring people's rights to sustainable development

This aerial photo taken on July 17, 2023 shows the view of a marine farm in Jianggezhuang Township, Laoting County, north China's Hebei Province. Laoting County has been actively developing marine farming in an effort to enrich seafood supply while mitigating intensity of inshore fishing and maintaining ecological balance in the oceanic environment.(Photo: Xinhua)

As the international seminar themed "Environment, Development and Human Rights: Marine Ecological Protection in the Process of Modernization" was held on Tuesday, experts say that China has set a benchmark for the world to achieve modernization through sustainable development.

More than 150 envoys and representatives of international organizations from more than 20 countries, including China, the UK, Italy, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Mauritius, as well as experts and scholars from relevant think tanks, universities and research institutions attended the seminar.

During the seminar, Wang Antao, director of the Department of International Cooperation of Ministry of Natural Resources, said that the high-quality development of China's marine economy has created a large number of job opportunities and sources of income, effectively protecting people's rights to subsistence and development. China has made solid progress in building a marine ecological civilization, and adopted a series of measures to effectively protect citizens' environmental rights, Wang noted.

Before the seminar, 15 foreign delegates from more than 10 countries visited Qingdao, East China's Shandong Province, to experience the marine endowments and natural resources through field visits and in-depth exchanges, and learn about China's experience in marine ecological protection and high-quality development of the marine economy.

Since the beginning of this year, Qingdao has comprehensively promoted the construction of "five centers" as a leading modern marine city, and promoted the city's marine economy to continuously move forward toward high-quality development. In the first half of the year, the city's gross marine product was 247.94 billion yuan ($33.9 billion), an increase of 7.6 percent.

At present, Qingdao possesses 57 ocean-related scientific research institutions, 56 ministry-level and above ocean-related high-end research and development platforms, 20 full-time resident ocean-related academicians, and 380,000 marine talents. By 2022, the proportion of coastal waters with good water quality in Qingdao reached 99 percent.

In recent years, China has taken many effective actions on marine pollution and other issues, including domestic garbage control and offshore waste dumping, which have helped protect the marine environment, Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, told the Global Times on Tuesday. At the same time, China has also taken measures to protect the marine ecology, such as introducing rules that reclamation is not allowed in principle except for major projects, which is very important for the protection of ecological diversity.

Experts say that the protection of marine and mangrove ecosystems carried out in recent years has made China one of the few countries where the area of mangrove forests has increased. This has played a great role in climate change, initially reversing the pressure on the marine environment and the unhealthy situation of the ecosystem, and expanding the area of ecological reserves.

"The marine environment is vital to human resources, livelihoods, food, health and well-being. The ocean is a stabilizer in the fight against climate change, and strengthening its protection can also better help ensure human life," Ma noted.