China has launched 27 priority operations and 75 priority projects on biodiversity conservation, in strengthening efforts to build itself into a beautiful country featuring harmonious coexistence between human beings and nature, Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu said on Tuesday.
Huang is in Colombia's southwestern city of Cali to attend the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), which runs from Oct. 21 to Nov. 1, and brings together delegations from 196 countries.
China has expressed the hope that the various agreements adopted at the COP15 could be faithfully implemented, especially the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. Signed by 196 countries, the framework consists of global targets to be achieved by 2030 and beyond to safeguard and sustainably use biodiversity.
In the lead up to the COP16, countries are encouraged to present their National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) in line with the goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. On the second day of the meeting, a COP16 media spokesperson reported that 35 countries had done so.
"We released a new version of NBSAP in January this year, which sets the construction of a beautiful China featuring harmonious coexistence of man and nature as the vision, and puts forward China's biodiversity conservation goals for 2030 and 2035. In addition, we have launched a total of 27 priority operations and 75 priority projects in four priority areas respectively focused on mainstreaming of biodiversity, response to the risk of biodiversity loss, sustainable use of biodiversity and benefit-sharing, and modernization of the biodiversity governance capacity," Huang said in an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) on the sidelines of the event.
Li Lin, director of Global Policy and Advocacy at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) International, has been leading WWF's China Conservation program for the last 11 years.
The WWF was the first non-governmental organization (NGO) invited into China in the 1980s, and Li said China has made strenuous efforts in preserving nature and transforming towards sustainable development over the past years.
"These 40 years are also a [period of] time when we have seen China go through rapid economic development, and we know when the economic development is really rapid, nature suffers. So, it is critical to remember that nature sustains us, even [with] the economic development. Therefore, we are really happy to see China is putting a path towards a green and low-carbon development," Li said.
She noted that WWF China has been closely working with various stakeholders in the country, including the Chinese government, on the conservation of wildlife and ecosystems, as well as on building the national park system. Therefore, China has a lot of experience to share with other countries at the COP16.
"I think the world has a lot to learn from China. Sustainability is something the world needs to really learn and share, so that we can all go through the future, live in harmony with nature together," Li said.
For any conservation efforts, the biggest challenge is funding. This May, China officially established the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to support biodiversity conservation in developing countries, and took the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan (about 210.45 million U.S. dollars) as a call for more countries to take concrete actions.
China continues efforts on biodiversity conservation with concrete actions, projects: minister
