China Releases Marine Ecological Classification and Zoning Compendium
On 10 October 2025, during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, the National Marine Data and Information Service (NMDIS) of China and the IUCN China Office released the English version of Marine Ecological Classification and Zoning Products and Their Applications: 8 Case Studies from China (hereafter referred to as the Compendium), based on the Chinese edition officially issued by China’s Ministry of Natural Resources in August 2025. The Compendium aims to share China’s experiences in marine ecosystem based management with the global community.
Marine ecosystem based management is a global strategy for conservation and sustainable development that requires scientific, systematic, and spatially explicit approaches. According to Dr Lu Wenhai, Director of the Ecological Research Office at the National Marine Data and Information Service, who spoke at the release event: “Ecosystem based management demands a holistic understanding of the ocean, and ecological classification and zoning serve as critical tools for translating this vision into action. They provide an ‘ecological basemap’ for marine management, clearly defining the ecological characteristics of different areas and thereby enabling more intuitive and precise decision making.”
Internationally, similar efforts led by the United States, the European Union, and organisations including IUCN have been underway since the 1990s. In recent years, China’s Ministry of Natural Resources has systematically organised research and practice on marine ecological classification and zoning, gradually establishing a product system that encompasses classification, zoning, and ecological mapping. These efforts have been integrated into marine management practices, forming an end to end workflow covering “classification–zoning–assessment–management” and effectively bridging ecological understanding with decision making.
The Compendium is structured in two sections. Part I introduces the foundational work of China’s marine ecological classification and zoning, presenting the overall product system along with illustrative examples including marine ecological classification standards, Ecological Zoning in China Seas and Adjacent Waters, Fourth level Ecological Zoning in China’s Coastal Waters, marine ecological component maps, and marine habitat maps.
Part II features eight representative case studies from China, illustrating how classification and zoning products support marine ecosystem assessment and management. These cases span four key areas—ecological status assessment, management strategy formulation, conservation and restoration, and development layout—and include Ecological Status Analysis of Ecological Zones, Setting Regional Evaluation Standard, Compilation of Marine Ecological Issues Inventory, Support for Regional Management Strategies, Supplementation of Key Ecological Spaces, Assessment of Suitable Areas for Mangrove Restoration, Mariculture suitability assessment, and Port shoreline development suitability assessment. Each case clearly outlines the problem context, technical methodology, and application outcomes, offering actionable pathways for other countries, especially developing nations, to advance precision marine management.
The release of the English Compendium not only demonstrates China’s systematic exploration in the field of marine ecological classification and zoning but also offers a set of scalable scientific tools for global ocean governance. According to NMDIS, next steps include further collaboration with international partners to collectively advance ecosystem based marine management.
Access the Compendium