JINAN, Feb. 8 -- East China's Shandong Province will continue working on wetland protection and aim to protect more than 70 percent of its total wetland by 2020, the provincial government said.

Shandong Province currently has about 1.74 million hectares of wetland, 11.09 percent of its total area. However the wetland is facing many problems such as shrinking area, dysfunction and decreasing biodiversity due to excessive development.

The province will set up ecological protection zones along the coastal areas and initiate the restoration projects of six wetland nature reserves including the state-level Yellow River delta nature reserve, according to the latest regulations for wetland protection published on Thursday.

The province also vows to rescue 9.92 million mu (661,300 hectares) of wetland and recover wetland of 5.36 million mu (357,300 hectares), stopping shrinking wetlands by 2020.