The Asian Development Bank said Thursday it would help China protect Yancheng, one of Asia's largest coastal wetlands which is an important winter site for threatened red-crowned cranes.
The Manila-based ADB said it approved a 650,000-dollar grant to help Beijing launch a protection project for the four million-hectare (9.9 million-acre) stretch of mud flats, creeks, salt marshes and reed beds on the east China coast that is threatened by environmental degradation.
Yancheng hosts hundreds of plant, bird, fish and mammal species, including 41 of the world's most highly endangered fauna, a bank report said.
The wetlands have been under threat from land reclamation for aquaculture and food crops, road building, pollution from upstream and invasion of alien species.
The bank aid would help the Yancheng municipal government design a conservation programme for the wetlands, the report added.
