LHASA, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- China's plateau region of Tibet has 6.53 million hectares of wetland, 8.7 percent more than in 2003, a regional forestry official revealed Monday, World Wetlands Day.

Tibet has invested 347 million yuan (56.5 million U.S. dollars) in the protection and rehabilitation of wetlands, said Zongga, deputy head of the regional forestry department.

Tibet issued a wetlands protection regulation in 2011, which helped restore wetland, he said.

According to figures released by the State Forestry Administration (SFA) Monday, China has established more than 570 wetland protection zones and over 900 wetland parks, while 43.5 percent of Chinese wetlands have been brought under official protection.

Earlier data from the SFA revealed that China has a total of 53.6 million hectares of wetland, making up more than 5 percent of the country's total terrain. In the past decade, 8.82 percent of wetlands have disappeared, been converted to farmland or used for infrastructure.