The red-crowned crane, spoon-billed sandpiper, Nordmann's greenshank and Saunders's gull are endangered migratory birds that will now be better protected in China as their key habitats were listed as natural UNESCO World Heritage sites on Friday.

At the ongoing 43rd session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Baku, Azerbaijan's capital, the Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of the Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I) were added to the World Heritage list as a natural site.

It is the country's 54th World Heritage site, 14th natural World Heritage site and the country's first and the world's second intertidal mud flat heritage site, according to a news release from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

"It fills in the country's gap of intertidal wetland heritage sites," the release said.

The Phase I site, covering most of the Yancheng Wetland Rare Birds National Nature Reserve, the Dafeng Milu National Nature Reserve and intertidal mud flats facing the Yellow Sea in the cities of Yancheng and Dongtai in Jiangsu province, is right in the middle of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. Every year, thousands of migratory birds, especially shorebirds, make stopovers, breed or winter on the intertidal wetlands in the area.

Of them, more than 90 percent of the world's spoon-billed sandpipers, a critically endangered sparrow-sized shorebird, make stopovers during their migration route between their breeding grounds in Siberia and their wintering grounds in the south. About 80 percent of the world's wild red-crowned cranes will winter in the Phase I area, according to the administration.

"The bird sanctuaries are truly one of the most important sites for the world's shorebirds," said Wen Cheng, a member of the administration's World Heritage Expert Committee. Wen participated in the entire nomination process of the World Heritage site and made dozens of field trips to the area since 2017.

He said that East China's tidal mud flats have long been affected by economic development. "Major human activities, such as aquaculture and construction of wind power plants, and the spread of such invasive species as spartina (a cordgrass) on the mud flats have destroyed many of the country's tidal mud flats," he said. As a result, the rich intertidal wetlands in Yancheng and Dongtai have become vital for many shorebird species' survival.

Terry Townshend, founder of the Birding Beijing website and a British ornithologist, considered the success of the site's being listed as a World Heritage site means a brighter future for migratory shorebirds.

"It's a big step forward as formal World Heritage site listings come with hard protection obligations," he said.

Factbox

Chinese properties inscribed on the World Heritage List as natural sites

1. Migratory Bird Sanctuaries along the Coast of Yellow Sea-Bohai Gulf of China (Phase I) (2019)

2. Chengjiang Fossil Site (2012)

3. China Danxia (2010)

4. Fanjingshan (2018)

5. Huanglong Scenic and Historic Interest Area (1992)

6. Hubei Shennongjia (2016)

7. Jiuzhaigou Valley Scenic and Historic Interest Area (1992)

8. Mount Sanqingshan National Park (2008)

9. Qinghai Hoh Xil (2017)

10. Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries - Wolong, Mt Siguniang and Jiajin Mountains (2006)

11. South China Karst (2007, 2014)

12. Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas (2003)

13. Wulingyuan Scenic and Historic Interest Area (1992)

14. Xinjiang Tianshan (2013)

Source: UNESCO