©️Mangrove Foundation

By 2021, China has 64 wetlands of International Importance, 20 Flyway Network Sites, 602 Wetland Nature Reserves, 899 National Wetland Parks, and thousands of local wetland parks and wetland conservation communities. These sites are not only important areas for wetland conservation and restoration, but also the best places to provide long-term and systematic wetland education activities for the public.

The establishment of wetland centers in these sites will help to connect the scattered wetland reserves across the country into one piece, forming a national network of wetland protection publicity and ecological education, so as to enhance the public’s awareness of wetland conservation and ultimately promote the realization of wetland conservation goals.

In December 2021, Mangrove Foundation officially published the book “China Wetland Centers Manual for Planning and Practice”, which aims to provide methodological guidance and practical reference for the establishment of wetland centers in China’s wetland reserves and support the professional development of their work on the publicity and education.

This book consists of three chapters: theory, practice and case studies. It explains what a wetland center and the establishment of wetland centers is, how to establish wetland centers, and how to carry out wetland education work based on existing publicity and education work. It also combined with 11 best cases, thoroughly analyzing how to carry out wetland education work in combination with the characteristics of wetland reserves.

In the process of writing this book, we collected and summarized the current status of publicity and education work in China’s wetland reserves through online research and field visits to more than 20 wetland reserves in Eastern China, Central China and Southern China. Referring to the relevant experience of the Taiwan region and Hong Kong, as well as the international outstanding wetland centers, we sorted out and summarize the working theories and methods of establishing and operating wetland centers in Shenzhen Bay, Shenzhen, China. We also applied these knowledge and techniques to several wetland reserves in their work on wetland education planning, program design, personnel training and so on, to further explore the wetland education model suitable for China’s wetland reserves. We also sincerely thanks the great help from the Wetlands Link International (WLI), the Ramsar Regional Centre-East Asia (RRC-EA) and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership (EAAFP).

Wetland education is an inherent requirement of wetland conservation. With the continuous advancement of wetland education, we realized that wetland education for schools, communities and social organizations are important, but the management department of wetland reserves has always been the main body to promote wetland education. Thus, the future China’s wetland education should focus on planning a wetland education system that serves the goals of wetland conservation, take the construction of wetland centers as the starting point, and carry out overall planning to promote communities, schools and the public participation in wetland conservation.

About Mangrove Foundation (MCF)

Mangrove Foundation (MCF) is the first local environmental protection public-raised foundation initiated in China. Since establishment, MCF focuses on the conservation on wetlands and their biodiversity and implement the “social participation conservation mode”. MCF now have three strategic branding projects as The Guardian of Shenzhen Bay, Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpipers, and Mangrove Conservation and Restoration. It joined as EAAFP Partner in 2020.

website: mcf.org.cn

Article prepared by Zeng Zhuo from Mangrove Foundation.

(Chinese version)

MCF正式出版《中国湿地教育中心创建指引》推动公众参与湿地保护

截止2021年，中国已拥有国际重要湿地64处，20 个 迁飞区鸟区，建成湿地自然保护区602处，国家湿地公园899处，以及为数众多的地方级湿地公园和湿地保护小区。这些场地既是湿地保护与修复的重要区域，也是为公众提供长期的、系统的湿地教育活动的最佳场所。

在这些场地内建立湿地教育中心，有助于将全国分散的湿地保护地连成片，形成一个湿地保护宣传、生态教育的全国网络，以提升公众的湿地保护意识，最终促进湿地保护目标的实现。

2021年12月，红树林基金会（MCF）正式出版了《中国湿地教育中心创建指引》，旨在为中国湿地保护地提供湿地教育中心创建的方法指导和实践参考，助力宣教工作的专业化发展。本书由理论、实践和案例三个篇章构成，阐述了何为湿地教育中心和湿地教育中心的创建，如何进行湿地教育中心规划以及基于现有宣教工作开展湿地教育工作，并结合11个优秀湿地教育中心的实际案例，深入剖析如何结合湿地保护地自身特色开展湿地教育工作。

在本书的编写过程中，我们通过线上调研和实地走访华东、华中和华南等20多处湿地保护地，收集、整理了中国湿地保护地的宣教工作现状。在参考中国台湾和香港地区，以及国际优秀湿地教育中心相关经验的基础上，我们梳理、总结深圳湾的湿地教育中心创建与运营的工作理论与方法，并应用在多个湿地保护地的湿地教育中心规划、方案研发、人员培训等工作当中，进一步探索适合中国湿地保护的湿地教育模式。本书的编写也得到国际湿地网络（WLI）、拉姆萨尔东亚地区中心（RRC-EA）和东亚—澳大利西亚候鸟迁飞区伙伴协定（EAAFP）的大力支持。

湿地教育是湿地保护事业的内在要求。随着湿地教育工作的不断推进，我们认识到，面向学校、社区、社会组织进行的湿地教育和培训固然重要，但保护地的管理部门始终是推动湿地保护教育工作的主体。从保护地管理部门的角度出发，规划为湿地保护目标服务的湿地教育体系，以建设湿地教育中心为抓手，进行整体规划、统筹推进，吸引社区、学校和公众走进湿地、了解湿地，应当成为未来湿地教育的重点。

红树林基金会（MCF）

红树林基金会（MCF）是中国首家由民间发起的环保公募基金会，致力于保护湿地及其生物多样性，践行社会化参与的自然保育模式。目前已启动“守护深圳湾”、“拯救勺嘴鹬”、“重建海上森林”三大战略品牌项目。红树林基金会于 2020 年加入 东亚-澳大利西亚迁飞区伙伴关系(EAAFP)。

2012年7月，基金会由阿拉善SEE生态协会、热衷公益的企业家以及深圳的相关部门提倡发起。王石、马蔚华担任创始会长（创始理事长），深圳大学前校长章必功、阿拉善SEE生态协会第七任会长艾路明、现任会长孙莉莉担任荣誉理事长，北京林业大学生态与自然保护学院教授、湿地公约科技委员会主席雷光春担任理事长。

网站: mcf.org.cn

文章作者：红树林基金会曾卓