BEIJING - President Xi Jinping on Saturday called for efforts to raise awareness, strengthen cooperation and scale up wetlands conservation action across the world.

Xi made the remarks when delivering a speech via video at the opening ceremony of the 14th Meeting of the Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The meeting will be held in China's Wuhan and Switzerland's Geneva from Nov 5 to 13.

Themed "Wetlands Action for People and Nature," the meeting is of great significance and will explore ways to further preserve and develop wetlands, Xi said.

"It is important that we build global consensus on prizing wetlands, show our respect for nature, minimize disruption and damage caused by human activities, and protect the ecological security of wetlands, in order to leave the beautiful wetlands to our future generations," Xi said.

"It is important that we advance the global process on wetlands conservation, redouble efforts to preserve authenticity and integrity, include more important wetlands in nature reserves, improve cooperation mechanisms and platforms, and increase the coverage of wetlands of international importance," he said.

"It is important that we enhance people's well-being globally by leveraging the role of wetlands in promoting sustainable development, tackling climate change, protecting biodiversity, and delivering more benefits to people around the world," he added.