Some 40 percent of the Shandong province's wetlands system has been restored through projects around major lakes and rivers, and half of?the province's wetlands fauna and 70 percent of the ecosystem's flora have been preserved during the "11th Five-Year Plan" Period (2006-2010).

Shandong has now spent 1.3 billion yuan (US$204.6 million) to protect wetlands, according to Jia Chongfu, head of Shandong Forestry Bureau.

Bureau statistics show Shandong's current 17 wetlands nature reserves cover 620,000 hectares, about 35 percent of the province's total wetlands.

The reserve zones, together with 61 wetland parks and two wetland protection demonstration bases, form a general wetland protection system in the province.

Shandong has five kinds of wetlands, which?are home to nearly half of the fauna and flora varieties in China.

According to the province's plan for the 12th Five-Year (2011-2015), Shandong will continue its efforts to restore wetlands.