Guangdong plans to invest 100 million yuan (US$12.08 million) in creating 50,000 more hectares of mangroves along the province's coastal areas over the next five years, reports Guangzhou Daily.

The 1.864 million hectares of wetlands in the province currently include 10,000 hectares of mangroves.

But industrial development has severely damaged the coastal wetlands in recent years. Three-quarters of the marshes at the mouth of the Pearl River have shrunk, said He Zhijun, director of the Wildlife Protection Office of the Provincial Forestry Bureau.

Efforts are being made to legislate a wetlands protection law next year, he added.

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