The World Estuarine Cities Conference for Cooperation and Development is held in Dongying, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province, on Nov 10. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The World Estuarine Cities Conference for Cooperation and Development was held in Dongying, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province, on Nov 10.

The conference, hosted by organizers including the Shandong Provincial People's Government and the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, aimed to help estuarine cities around the world learn from each other about best practices in ecological protection and high-quality development.

Diplomatic envoys, representatives of international organizations and government officials attended the event via both online and offline channels.

"Estuaries are the rainforests of our ocean," said Susan Gardner, director of the Ecosystems Division of the United Nations Environment Programme via a video address. "Their protection, restoration and sustainable management is crucial to attain our sustainable development goals."

Attendees at the World Estuarine Cities Conference for Cooperation and Development. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, Shandong is making efforts to "lead the way in promoting ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin", said Li Ganjie, Party secretary of Shandong.

The conference is of great importance for estuarine cities in further protecting wetland ecological protection, fostering closer friendships, deepening cultural exchanges and strengthening industrial and economic cooperation in broader areas, Li added.

"Estuarine city" refers to a city developed on a coastal zone where the river and the ocean meet, closely linking the diversified ecosystems of rivers, land and oceans with human social and economic activities, according to the Report on the Development of World Estuarine Cities (2022) released by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research at the conference. The report studies typical development cases of estuary cities such as Rotterdam, Quebec, Shanghai and Dongying.

The Dongying Initiative on Cooperation and Development of World Estuarine Cities was also released at the conference, calling for estuarine cities to "work together in establishing a new partnership of win-win cooperation, improving people's well-being, building a better homeland, and contributing to the building of a community with a shared future for mankind".