To celebrate the upcoming 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) in Kunming, China in October, 2021, the series on China’s Biodiversity and Protection in the New Era has been grandly published by Henan Science and Technology Press to report China’s achievements in biodiversity protection and its contribution to global ecological civilization construction in the new era.

Open a window to observe China’s Ecological Civilization construction

Show the achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization in

China’s biodiversity protection practices

——The series on China’s Biodiversity and Protection in the New Era was grandly published   

In September 2020, President Xi Jinping stated at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity: “We need to take up our lofty responsibility for the entire human civilization, and we need to respect Nature, follow it and protect it. We need to find a way for man and Nature to live in harmony, to balance and coordinate economic development and ecological protection, and work together to build a prosperous, clean and beautiful world”. At the summit, President Xi declared to the world: “It falls to all of us to act together and urgently to advance protection and development in parallel, so that we can turn Earth into a beautiful homeland for all creatures to live in harmony.”

China is an important participant and promoter of the Convention on Biological Diversity and its related protocols, and has always been at the forefront of the constructive promotion of global biodiversity governance. From taking initiatives to establish the Belt and Road International Green Development Coalition, and carrying out environmental protection exchanges and cooperation with more than 100 countries successively, to pledging China’s objective and vision to peak carbon emissions and then achieve carbon neutrality, and to putting forward a series of new measures such as scaling up its nationally determined contributions, China has demonstrated the firm determination of a responsible major country to actively respond to climate change and promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

China is an active actor in biodiversity protection and has made a series of important achievements. For the last 10 years, China has topped the world in forest resource increase, with more than 70 million hectares of land afforested. We have made long-term, large-scale efforts to combat sandification and desertification, and we have effectively protected and restored the wetlands. We now have one of the world’s largest banks of genetic resources reserve. Ninety percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 85 percent of key wild animal populations are under effective protection. Among the 20 goals set by the 10th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity in 2010, 16 goals are progressing normally and are expected to be achieved in China. China has established a systematic policy system for biodiversity protection, which has made important contributions to biodiversity protection.

In October 2021, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity will be held in Kunming, Yunnan, China. This is the first global conference held by the United Nations with the theme of ecological civilization, when the “Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework” will be developed, which is the new global action plan for biodiversity protection for the next 10 years after the “Aichi Biodiversity Targets”.

Therefore, Henan Science and Technology Press invited experts from the Ecological Society of China to plan and publish the series on China’s Biodiversity and Protection in the New Era. This series consists of seven volumes: Plant Diversity and  Conservation in China, Animal Diversity and Conservation in China, Biogenetic Diversity and Conservation in China, Ecosystem Diversity and Protection in China, Ecological Management and Restoration in Typically and Ecologically Vulnerable Regions in China, National Parks and Protected Areas System in China, and Climate Change Strategy：China’s Road to Carbon Neutrality, all of which are illustrated and summarized in English. It’s hoped such series will open a window for readers worldwide to recognize and understand China’s grand efforts on the Ecological Civilization construction, and to show the achievements of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization in China’s biodiversity protection practices. It also aims to share China’s experience with the world, and to provide China’s solutions and demonstrate the role of a major country on biodiversity protection.

We sincerely hope that the publication of the series on China’s Biodiversity and Protection in the New Era will attract and gather more international people to actively participate in global biodiversity protection and make positive contributions to building a harmonious beautiful homeland.