After more than two decades of unwavering commitment to its "ecology-first" strategy, Shanghai's Chongming district has achieved a fine balance between environmental protection and economic growth.

Addressing the 2026 Shanghai Chongming Eco-Island International Forum on Saturday, Tang Chendong, deputy head of Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, listed a series of remarkable achievements Chongming has made in building a world-class eco-island.

Since 2001, more than 600 enterprises with high energy consumption and pollution in Chongming have been shut down or restructured, Tang said.

Thanks to the district's vigorous afforestation efforts, he said Chongming has seen its forest coverage jump from no more than 10 percent after the turn of the millennium to 30.7 percent today.

Tang has especially highlighted the achievement Chongming, a key stopover on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway, has made in bird conservation.

The number of migratory birds stopping over at the Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Bird National Nature Reserve has soared from under 40,000 in 2009 to nearly 500,000 last year, he disclosed.

When the reserve was established in 1998, only over 10 tundra swans wintered there, he said. Last year, that number shot up to nearly 5,000.

Without harming the ecology or biodiversity, Chongming has preliminarily established a green energy system based on wind and solar power and has vigorously promoted circular agriculture, he added.

According to a report jointly unveiled by Chongming government and the Policy Research Center for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Saturday, renewable sources supplied 38 percent of Chongming's total electricity consumption in 2025.

Moreover, Chongming's energy intensity — energy consumption per unit of GDP — last year declined by 13.5 percent from 2020 levels.

Tang said Chongming has also registered rapid growth in green and eco-friendly industries such as ecotourism, sports and wellness care.

"Compared with the early 2000s, Chongming's economic value added has increased more than fivefold and its per capita GDP nearly sevenfold, marking initial success in converting ecological strengths into development gains and greater well-being for the people," he stressed.

The efforts to build Chongming into a world-class eco-island are continuing. When addressing the forum, David Melville, an expert with Global Flyway Network, for instance, has highlighted an initiative introduced by Chongming authorities in March to address the potential conflict between farmers and birds that forage on farms when winter food supplies dwindle.

The migratory bird insurance program provides an innovative way to offer compensation to farmers based either on crop loss indicators or changes in bird populations, he said. The mechanism aims to reduce human wildlife conflict while securing critical stopover habitats.

"The leadership shown by Chongming in wetland conservation and management is recognized throughout China and internationally," he said.

Kaveh Zahedi, director of the Office of Climate Change, Biodiversity and Environment at the Food and Agriculture Organization, said, "The development of Dongtan, a city of the future in Shanghai's Chongming district is an example of how sustainable agriculture and green development work together in an urban context."