Nearly 100 key areas have carried out the registration work of natural resource rights, breaking down the barriers between registration of natural resources and real estate, a senior official said at an event in Shandong's Linyi on Sunday.

Jointly organized by the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Shandong provincial government, this event was a part of the series of activities commemorating the 55th World Earth Day, which fell on Monday this year.

"Up until now, the registration work of natural resource rights has sequentially completed in nearly 100 key areas, including the Wuyishan National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Elk National Natural Reserve in Dafeng, Jiangsu's Yancheng, and the Kunyu Mountain National Natural Reserve in Shandong," said Hu Shanshun, head of the ministry's natural resources confirmation and registration bureau.

Hu said that by demarcating boundaries and confirming ownership, the registration work can not only safeguard the rights and interests of resource assets, but also solidify the responsibility for ecological conservation.

China proposed to carry out unified registration of natural resource rights on the basis of real estate registration in 2015. This encompasses a wide array of resources, ranging from nature reserves, forests, wetlands, and grasslands to rivers, lakes, verified mineral reserves, maritime areas, and uninhabited islands.

The country completed the inaugural natural resource registration in the Hainan Tropical Rainforest National Park in Hainan province in 2022, clarifying the ownership, oversight, and associated responsibilities of the resources. Being home to China's largest rainforest and the endangered Hainan gibbon, the national park is of critical ecological value.

"We will continue to enhance regulations for natural resource registration and leverage registration outcomes to underpin the advancement of the natural resource property rights system and the fostering of ecological civilization," Hu said.