Effective conservation of 90% of typical ecosystems and 85% of important species

◆ Reporter: Jiang Zhaohui

Yunnan, known as the "animal kingdom", "plant kingdom", "world garden" and "species gene bank", is the province with the richest biodiversity in China, an important treasure house of biodiversity in China, and an ecological security barrier in southwest China.

Recently, the reporter learned from the "COP15 Invitation of Eternal Spring City" Yunnan Biodiversity Conservation Series Press Conference that after long-term unremitting efforts, Yunnan is now at the forefront of biodiversity conservation in the whole country: improved the nature reserve system, and steadily improved the ecosystem quality; conserved and restored a large number of rare and endangered species or species with extremely small populations, and greatly improved the level of sustainable utilization of biological resources; effectively conserved 90% of typical ecosystems and 85% of important species in the province; carried out pilot exploration of biodiversity and ecosystem service value evaluation, acquisition and benefit sharing of genetic resources and related traditional knowledge; took the lead in issuing the Regulations on Biodiversity Conservation in Yunnan Province in China...

Work together to achieve new breakthroughs in key tasks in the whole province

According to Cao Yongheng, inspection commissioner of the Department of Ecology and Environment of Yunnan Province, Yunnan only occupies 4.1% of the country's land area, but it covers all the ecosystem types on the earth except ocean and desert. The number of biological species in each major group approaches or exceeds half of the similar species in the country.

The Yunnan Provincial Party Committee and the People's Government of Yunnan Province attached great importance to and promoted biodiversity conservation, successively issued Lijiang Declaration, Tengchong Program and Xishuangbanna Agreement, took the lead in formulating the Regulations on Biodiversity Conservation in Yunnan Province, which pioneered local legislation, and the pilot construction of national parks, and issued the provincial Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2012-2030) earlier in China.

Established Yunnan Biodiversity Conservation Committee and Expert Committee, Yunnan Biodiversity Research Institute, and Biodiversity Conservation Foundation.

In 2018, Yunnan declared the redline for ecological protection of 118,400km2, accounting for 30.90% of the province's area. Currently, the assessment for ecological protection redline is carried out in Yunnan to further optimize "ecological, production and living spaces". In 2020, the red line for ecological protection, the bottom line for environmental quality, the high line of resource utilization and the negative list of ecological environment access ("three lines and one list") were determined in Yunnan, and an ecological environment zoning management and control system was constructed in the province.

Moreover, Yunnan Province has issued and implemented the Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Action Plan (2012-2030) and the three-year implementation plan, and implemented "six one actions" to become the leader of biodiversity conservation. The province took the lead in compiling a series of monographs such as Yunnan Encyclopedia · Ecological Volume; and was the first to publish provincial-level white papers List of Biological Species in Yunnan Province (2016 Edition), Red List of Biological Species in Yunnan Province (2017 Edition), List of Ecological Systems in Yunnan Province (2018 Edition), List of Alien Invasive Species in Yunnan Province (2019 Edition), List of New Species and New Records in Yunnan Province (1992-2020), and Biology in Yunnan Province.

With a multi-sectoral cooperation and coordination mechanism established, Yunnan Province has devoted greater efforts to crack down on biodiversity violations and strengthen law enforcement and inspection of entry and exit of species resources. The province continued to strengthen the supervision of the "Green Shield" nature reserve, organized and implemented monitoring by remote sensing and verification of human activities in various nature reserves at various levels, such as national parks and nature reserves, with rectification measures taken, and carried out the management performance evaluation of nature reserves.

Multi-pronged approach to build a new pattern of land ecological security

According to Zhao Qiaogui, member of the party group, deputy director-general and spokesperson of the Department of Natural Resources of Yunnan Province, in recent years, has actively constructed a new pattern of land space development and conservation by taking various practical measures, such as establishing the provincial land space planning system and supervising its implementation, comprehensively implementing the ecological restoration of land space, and establishing and improving the management system of public-owned natural resource assets, which has provided strong support for ensuring the ecological environment security.

The Territorial Spatial Planning of Yunnan Province (2021-2035) clearly proposed to construct an ecological safety pattern of "three barriers, two zones, six corridors and multiple nodes", focus on conserving unique ecosystems, natural vegetation, tropical rainforest, and rare and endangered species, give full play to the function of ecological security in the Yangtze River, Nujiang River, Red River, Lower Lancang River and Lower Pearl River, ensure the connectivity and continuity among important ecological function areas, and advance the construction of important ecological nodes including nine plateau lakes (Dian Lake, Fuxian Lake, Erhai Lake, etc.), Laojun Mountain in Lijiang, Tongbiguan in Yingjiang, with the main tasks of improving local ecological environment and conserving biodiversity.

To construct a biodiversity conservation network, and designate Meili Snow Mountains-Biluo Snow Mountains Taiga Zone and other eight key areas of biodiversity conservation, to conserve the overall ecosystem with diversified species and obvious regional characteristics in a large scale.

To designate and strictly follow the redline for ecological protection, implement the most stringent ecological environmental protection systems, and not change the redline for ecological protection without legal procedures, thereby effectively reducing and weakening the interference of human activities with the key biodiversity areas, and protecting the habitat of endangered wild animal and plant communities.

To actively carry out land space protection and restoration, and achieve the sustainable utilization of natural resources and the region-wide protection of ecological environment. To establish and improve the ecological protection and restoration systems, organize and develop the Land Space Ecological Restoration Planning in Yunnan Province (2021-2035), and actively construct the land space ecological restoration planning system at three levels of province, prefecture (city) and county; and to coordinate the integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, grasslands, and deserts. The ecological protection and restoration project in the Fuxian Lake basin was included in the second batch of national pilot ecological protection and restoration project of mountains, rivers, forests, farmlands, lakes, and grasslands, with a total investment of RMB 9.728 billion, and the biodiversity is gradually restored.

The province also actively explored the value realization mechanisms of ecological products and other measures, and accelerated the construction and perfection of the management system for public-owned natural resource assets, discovered transformation paths for biodiversity conservation with multiple benefits and approaches, and strived to turn conservation achievements into "mountains of gold and silver".

Equal stress on construction and management to strengthen the new systems of nature reserves

According to Wang Weibin, member of the party group and deputy director-general of the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Yunnan Province, Yunnan Province continues to strengthen the construction of systems for nature reserves, and strives to establish a standardized and efficient nature reserve system which focuses on national parks, carries Yunnan characteristics and is in agreement with the actual situation in Yunnan.

Since the establishment of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, the first ever nature reserve in Yunnan in 1958, 362 nature reserves have been designated and constructed in the province, including natural park system pilot area, nature reserve, scenic spot nad other 11 types, with a nature reserve area of 5.4958 million hectares in the province, accounting for 14.32% of the province's area. Therefore, a nature reserve system with diversified types and various functions has been formed initially, which effectively conserved 90% of important ecosystems and 85% of important protected wild animals and plants, well as most of important nature relics.

In the progress of advancing solidly the nature reserve system, the province, based on its actual situation, has made continuous exploration and innovation, and continuously developed new measures and achieved new results in strengthening organization and leadership, and attaching great importance to promote deployment; adhering to goal orientation and clarifying working tasks; perfecting legal mechanisms and standardizing conservation and management; advancing system reformation and reinforcing demonstration leading; preparing reasonable plans and coordinating conservation and development; intensifying daily supervision and vigorously take rectification measures; advocating participation by all people and realizing joint construction and sharing.

The target tasks and 11 key priorities were defined in the Opinions on Implementing the Nature Reserve System Focusing on National Parks issued by the General Office of the Yunnan Provincial Party Committee and the People's Government of Yunnan Province. A scientific layout for the spatio-temporal development of nature reserves in the province was further made in the Development Plan of Nature Reserves in Yunnan Province (2021-2035) prepared by the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Yunnan Province. The Regulations on National Parks in Yunnan Province, which is the very first local regulations on national parks in the Chinese mainland, was a "model of leading transformation by legislation in the construction of nature reserve systems. The Regulations on the Adjustment and Management of Local Nature Reserves in Yunnan Province was enacted to standardize the management of nature reserves.

After a five-year pilot scheme, the pilot system task of Shangri-La Potatso National Park has been completed in Yunnan. Moreover, the management systems of nature reserves in the national level were straightened out, which provided experience reference for constructing a unified management system for nature reserves by different categories and levels. The Integrated Optimization Plan for Nature Reserves in Yunnan Province completed by the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Yunnan Province has been submitted to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration. So far, the rectification has been completed for the issues reported in the first round of central environmental protection supervision and "follow-up re-examinations" led by the Forestry and Grassland Bureau of Yunnan Province, as well as prominent ecological issues in the Yangtze River Economic Belt in 2018, with acceptance procedures completed.