As many as 18 wetland parks will be created in Beijing this year, the Beijing municipal bureau of landscape and forestry has announced.

Yang Zhihua, who heads the bureau's protection department, shared the news during the 14th annual World Wetlands Day on Tuesday.

Yang said each of Beijing's 18 districts and counties will bring to life a new wetland park in 2010 - including those in city centers, such as Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu.

The exact locations and sizes of the parks are still under discussion and details will depend on the current condition of each area.

According to Yang, water areas in parks will be converted into wetland habitat in densely urban areas where land is at a premium. In other areas, where land is more plentiful, natural habitat will be enhanced and protected.

Currently, there is some 51,400 hectares of wetlands in the city, covering 3.13 percent of its footprint.

"However, the average rate in China is 3.77 percent, which should put ecological security at the top of the city's agenda," Yang told METRO yesterday.

Since the 1970s, Beijing's wetlands have shrunk by 50 percent.

Yang said policy makers have made land available for profitable urban development instead of for the creation of new parks.

And he said Beijing has sacrificed a lot for its development.

"There are too many people living in Beijing. The natural environment has been invaded by modern industries. It is high time policy makers realized that and tried to think in the long term," he said.

The aim of the new project is to build a basic wetland system in Beijing and improve the city's ecological environment.

But wetland experts doubted whether the gesture will make much difference.

"The minimum size of a wetland is one hectare and it must have its own special animals and plants. It's meaningless to built current water areas in parks into wetland parks, unless they have their own biodiversity," said Hong Jianming, vice director of the Beijing wetland research center.

Wang Jian, an expert who specializes in water resources at Green SOS, said wetlands can act as the kidneys of the earth, adjusting the temperature and humidity of a city.

"But building water areas in parks into wetlands, I don't think it can act as real wetland," he said.