Suzhou is actively carrying out the application for International Wetland City. Since 2022, the city has met over 80 percent of the targets to apply for the title. Some 113.3 square kilometers of protected wetlands were added across the city last year, increasing the rate of protected natural wetlands from 70.4 percent to 72.4 percent, the highest in Jiangsu province.

International Wetland City is the highest honor on ecological protection of wetlands. As of now, there are 43 international wetland cities across the globe, including 13 in China. Changshu, a county-level city of Suzhou, was accredited in 2018.

Suzhou has stepped up efforts to protect wetlands in recent years and made a series of achievements. Ranking first in the number of wetlands among the country’s prefecture-level cities, the city now owns 103 major wetlands covering an area of 249,770.29 hectares, accounting for 93.4 percent of the area of natural wetlands.