Interview by Xinhua writers Zhao Kai, Wang Linyuan and Liao Siwei
CALI, Colombia – China has been vigorously promoting society-wide biodiversity conservation to achieve peace with nature, Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu says.
“More people, especially teenagers, are engaging in biodiversity conservation, creating beautiful scenes of harmony between humanity and nature,” Huang has said in a recent interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16), which began last Monday and ends on Frioday in the Colombian city of Cali.
The theme this year is “Peace with Nature.”
In recent years, China has taken the lead in establishing an ecological protection redline system, accounting for more than 30 percent of the country’s total land area, Huang said. The results have been astounding, with 90 percent of China’s terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of key protected wild animal and plant species populations now effectively safeguarded.
Huang said China has implemented 52 protection and restoration projects covering mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sand ecosystems. The total treatment area has reached 100 million mu (6.67 million hectares), and China’s forest coverage rate has increased to over 24 percent.
By promoting the protection and restoration of marine ecosystems, the total area of mangroves has increased to 438,000 mu, making China one of the few countries with a net increase in mangrove coverage, the minister added.
Huang said the trend of biodiversity loss in China has been effectively contained. The wild population of more than 300 rare and endangered species, such as Asian elephants and snow leopards, is recovering and growing, and nearly 500 species of wild animals and plants, such as giant pandas, are becoming less threatened.
In January, China updated and released the National Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2023-30) in line with the global goals of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, Huang said.
The Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted in December 2022 and consists of global targets to be achieved by 2030 to safeguard biodiversity and set the world on a path of recovery.
“China is the first developing country to complete the update of the biodiversity strategy and action plan after the adoption of the framework,” Huang noted.
The updated action plan outlined the country’s goals for biodiversity conservation by 2030 and 2035, highlighting priority areas and dozens of priority projects, and providing a “Chinese solution” to achieve the framework’s goals. – Xinhua
