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Biodiversity Conservation Projects

The Academy of Contemporary China and World StudiesUpdated:  March 20, 2023

Biodiversity Conservation Projects

Biodiversity is the guarantee of life on earth. It provides rich and diversified essentials for human life and work, a safe and sound eco-environment, and a beautiful world. Biodiversity conservation is key to China's efforts to build an eco-civilization, and it is also an international priority.

China boasts a rich biodiversity which it treasures. It has made biodiversity conservation a key part of building an eco-civilization, and subscribes to the philosophy that mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes and grasslands are a community of life. China has simultaneously progressed development and protection, stepped up work on relevant legislation, drawn red lines for ecological conservation, launched major biodiversity conservation projects, and conducted biodiversity surveys, monitoring and assessment. It has reinforced wildlife protection, and stepped up the introduction of a system of protected areas with national parks as the mainstay and supplemented by nature reserves and various nature parks. As a result, public awareness of and participation in conservation of biodiversity have both expanded.

China has made biodiversity conservation a national strategy, and included it in the medium- and long-term development plans of all geographical regions and functional areas. It has also improved relevant policies and legal provisions. These include the release of the Overall Plan to Reform the System for Developing an Eco-civilization, the China National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2011-2030), the Guidelines on Improving Biodiversity Conservation, and the plan for events under the framework of the "UN Decade on Biodiversity, China in Action." It has enacted the Biosecurity Law and revised the Law on Animal Epidemic Prevention. These are the top-level design of spatial management, protection, utilization and compensation, and provide an institutional guarantee for biodiversity conservation and management.

Thanks to a constant effort, China has made substantial progress in biodiversity conservation. Between 2009 and 2019, the country topped the world in the increase of forest areas, with more than 70 million hectares of land afforested. It made lasting, large-scale efforts to combat sandification and desertification, and effectively protected and restored areas of wetland. It built the world's largest banks of genetic resource reserves. About 90 percent of its vegetation types and terrestrial ecosystems, 65 percent of its higher plant communities, and 85 percent of its wild animal species on the national key list were placed under effective protection.

Many news stories about China's wildlife protection have caught public attention: the northward migration of a herd of wild Asian elephants in Yunnan Province, the giant panda being downgraded from "endangered" to "vulnerable" on the list of protected animals, the frequent appearance of dolphins in the Yangtze River and snow leopards in the Sanjiangyuan National Park (source of the Yangtze, Yellow and Lancang rivers), and the increase in the population of Tibetan antelopes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau from 70,000 to 300,000.

China advocates that "the solutions lie in nature," so humanity should look for development opportunities while protecting nature, and undertake eco-environmental conservation alongside high-quality development.

As one of the earliest countries to join the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), China has fulfilled its obligations under all relevant treaties. It was among the first countries to set up a national committee for biodiversity conservation, and had met in advance relevant goals set for building nature reserves by 2020.

China hosted the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) in October 2021. The participants discussed new strategies for global biodiversity governance to build a shared future for all life on earth.

生物多样性保护工程

生物多样性是地球生命共同体的血脉和根基,为人类提供了丰富多样的生产生活必需品、健康安全的生态环境和独特别致的景观文化。加强生物多样性保护,是中国生态文明建设的重要内容,也是国际社会的广泛共识。

作为世界上生物多样性最丰富的国家之一,中国高度重视生物多样性保护,将其作为生态文明建设的重要内容进行系统部署,走出了一条中国特色生物多样性保护之路。中国按照山水林田湖草是生命共同体理念,坚持在发展中保护、在保护中发展,加快立法步伐,划定生态保护红线,实施生物多样性保护重大工程,推进生物多样性调查、监测、评估,扎实做好野生动植物资源保护,推动建立以国家公园为主体、自然保护区为基础、各类自然公园为补充的自然保护地管理体系,不断提高生物多样性保护的社会参与度和公众意识,形成了政府主导、全民参与,多边治理、合作共赢的机制,推动中国生物多样性保护不断取得新成效,为应对全球生物多样性挑战作出新贡献。

中国将生物多样性保护上升为国家战略,把生物多样性保护纳入各地区、各领域中长期规划,不断建立健全生物多样性保护政策法规体系,发布实施《生态文明体制改革总体方案》《中国生物多样性保护战略与行动计划(2011—2030年)》《关于进一步加强生物多样性保护的意见》和“联合国生物多样性十年中国行动方案”等政策文件,颁布施行《中华人民共和国生物安全法》和新修订的《中华人民共和国动物防疫法》等法律法规,从空间管控、保护与利用、保护与补偿等方面强化顶层设计,为生物多样性保护和管理提供制度保障。

经过不懈努力,中国生物多样性保护工作取得积极进展:森林资源在过去10年内增长面积超过7000万公顷,居全球首位。长时间、大规模治理沙化、荒漠化,有效保护修复湿地,生物遗传资源收集保藏量位居世界前列。90%的植被类型和陆地生态系统、65%的高等植物群落、85%的重点保护野生动物种群得到有效保护。云南野象“旅游团”北巡,大熊猫受威胁程度等级从“濒危”降为“易危”,“微笑天使”长江江豚频繁亮相,三江源国家公园等地的雪豹频繁现身,青藏高原藏羚羊种群数量从7万头增加到30万头等暖心消息频频登上热搜。

中国主张以自然之道,养万物之生,从保护自然中寻找发展机遇,实现生态环境保护和经济高质量发展双赢。作为最早加入联合国《生物多样性公约》的国家之一,中国切实履行相关条约义务,在国际上率先成立了生物多样性保护国家委员会,并提前完成2020年设立自然保护区相关目标。中国于2021年承办《生物多样性公约》第十五次缔约方大会,同各方共商全球生物多样性治理新战略,共建地球生命共同体。

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