Draw a Beautiful Picture of the Harmonious Co-existence between Human and Nature
◆Our reporter: Tong Kenan
The Yunnan wild elephant tour group made a trip to the north, the smiling angel Yangtze finless porpoise frequently made a public appearance, and snow leopards frequently appeared in Sanjiangyuan National Park and other places... Recently, news in the field of biodiversity has often become hot topics of society.
Biodiversity, as a field that made many people feel strange and even mysterious in the past, is actually closely connected to everyone. As General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized, biodiversity is an important foundation of human survival and development.
China is one of the first countries to approve the Convention on Biological Diversity. Biodiversity protection is a piece of work that China has attached great importance to for a long time. For years, all localities and departments have introduced a series of effective measures, allowing people to see the luxuriant flowers and wild animals that appear frequently. Draw a beautiful picture of the harmonious co-existence between human and nature with all this.
The protection effort has been accelerated: In-situ protection has achieved notable results, and ex-situ protection has also been well on track.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized ecology for prosperity of civilization. We need to take up our lofty responsibility for the entire human civilization, and we need to respect Nature, follow its laws and protect it. We need to find a way for man and Nature to live in harmony, balance and coordinate economic development and ecological protection, and work together to build a prosperous, clean and beautiful world.
Following this fundamental observance and guidelines, a series of measures have been promoted steadily.
The delineation of the ecological redlines secures the survival and development space of populations of wild plants and animals. Currently, the delineation of the ecological protection redlines has been basically completed. The area of initially delineated national ecological protection redlines is not less than 25% of the land area, covering key ecological function areas, ecological environment sensitive areas and vulnerable area as well as key areas of the national biodiversity distribution.
In-situ protection and ex-situ protection are important measures for biodiversity protection.
Since the establishment of the first nature reserve-Dinghushan Nature Reserve in China in 1956, 2,750 nature reserves have been established nationwide, with a total area of approximately 1.47 million square kilometers, accounting for about 15% of the land area, including 474 national nature reserves with a total area of more than 970,000 square kilometers.
The implementation of the Overall Plan for Establishing the National Park System has powerfully stimulated the establishment of a system of protected natural areas with national parks as its mainstay. 12 provinces have now developed national park trials with a total area of more than 220,000 square kilometers.
In-situ protection has achieved notable results, and ex-situ protection has also been well on track. In Nanchang Zoo, Jiangxi, a blue-crowned laughing thrush stood on a tree branch and fluttered its wings from time to time, being felt to be very beautiful.
As a critically endangered species in the evaluation standards of IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, 10 blue-crowned Babblers were immigrated from Wuyuan to Nanchang Zoo in 2010 and successfully reproduced two generations of "descendants" by 2019.
To strengthen the management of urban parks, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued Code for Zoo Management, Code for Design of Zoo and others to guide local governments to strengthen ex-situ protection of rare and endangered species and enrich the diversity of animals and plants relying on zoos and botanical gardens.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences strengthened the construction of China General Microbiological Culture Collection Center, and the number of culture collections ranked second in the Budapest Treaty International Culture Collection Center; Its 15 botanical gardens have collected, studied and made use of specialized plant groups for a long time, thus protecting 85% of the species in the list of key wild plants in China.
Strictly prevent the invasion of alien species: Strengthen biosecurity supervision and maintain biosecurity according to law
In March 2006, a small insect triggered the "People vs Bugs" in Beijing.
Beijing Forestry Department added more than 1,500 monitoring points that month, and nearly 20,000 ecological forest managers conducted strict round-the-clock monitoring.
This bug that made Beijing on its guard for all possible dangers is an alien species that invades China-the American white moth. They had a wide range of growth, strong fecundity and gluttony. In 1995, gluttony of green leaves by white moths in Tanggu District,Tianjin caused 280,000 acres of trees to be eaten up.
What's more, invasion of alien species has a negative impact on biodiversity and biosecurity besides economic damage.
From 2003, the national competent administrative department of environmental protection, in collaboration with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, published four batches of lists of invasive alien species in 2003, 2010, 2014, and 2016 respectively, promulgated the Technical Guideline for Assessment on Environmental Risk of Alien Species and investigated alien invasive species in national natural reserves.
To further strengthen biosecurity supervision, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs also instructed local governments to investigate species listed in the Catalogue of Alien Invasive Species under National Key Management (First Batch) and regionally major hazard invasive species, and used satellite remote sensing technology to monitor 11 aquatic alien invasive plants (water hyacinth and water peanut) in key waters of 11 southern provinces, and organized removal of alien invasive species ragweed and mikania micrantha in Xinjiang and Yunnan.
The Biosecurity Law of the People's Republic of China was formally implemented on April 15 this year. As a basic, comprehensive, systematic, and ruling law in the field of biosecurity, its implementation indicates that China's biosecurity has entered a new stage of governance according to the law.
For unauthorized introduction of alien species, the Biosecurity Law stipulates severe punitive measures: Those who introduce alien species without approval will face a fine of above RMB 50,000 but under RMB 250,000 and introduced alien species will be confiscated by the relevant departments of the people's government at or above the county level in accordance with the division of responsibilities.
Fully demonstrate sharing and co-governance: collaborative promotion of biodiversity protection and poverty reduction
The threat level of giant pandas has been reduced from endangerment to vulnerability, and the wild population quantity has increased from 1,114 in the 1970s and 1980s to 1,864 at present; More than 20 kinds of rare and endangered wild plants with very small populations, such as Chinese yew, parrotia subaequalis, cycas debaoensis and cathaya argyrophylla, have been effectively protected in the main distribution areas.
These figures reflect the results achieved in China's biodiversity protection. "sharing and co-governance" was truly evident in this process.
In Baqing Village, Weichang County, Hebei Province, the planting of trollflowers covering an area of 60 acres has brought about considerable economic benefit and drove a direct increase in the annual income of 30 registered poor families in the village in 2018.
"My wife and I became a shareholder with RMB 6,000 the year before last. Now we can obtain income of RMB 7,000 from annual bonus, land transfer and working in the company a year." Villager Qiao Wenming said happily that he lifted himself from poverty together with endowment insurance.
Although the medicinal value of trollflowers was high, the lack of villagers' livelihoods and insufficient protection mechanisms resulted in the artificial picking and sales of wild trollflowers in the reserve. The demonstration project of artificial cultivation of trollflowers established by the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment has effectively protected biodiversity of Weichang County and also has improved the livelihoods of local poor villagers.
This is just a miniature of the collaborative promotion model of biodiversity protection and poverty reduction.
In recent years, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has developed trials and demonstrations on biodiversity protection and poverty reduction in 12 counties in Yunnan, Hebei and other provinces. Biological resources in the pilot areas have been protected to some extent, and the annual income of poor households has increased by more than RMB 3,000.
In addition, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has also launched aquatic life protection actions mainly in the Yangtze River, promoted a comprehensive ban on fishing in the Yangtze River, reduced catching intensity, protected aquatic biological resources, and explored useful experience for fishermen in the Yangtze River Basin to realize comprehensive dual transformation and ban on fishing.
In October this year, China will hold the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Kunming to draw a blueprint for biodiversity protection for the next 10 years and initiate a new process of global biodiversity governance.
At the meeting, China will actively share the practice and experience of biodiversity protection with the international community. We hope that China and the international community combine our efforts to promote future successes in biodiversity protection.
