IUCN Director-General Bruno Oberle: China has taken effective action on biodiversity conservation

Source: Xinhua Net

Kunming, 10 Oct (Xinhua) -- Exclusive interview: China has taken effective action to protect biodiversity – a visit to Bruno Oberle, Director-General of the International Union for Conservation of Nature

Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhang Jiawei Dong Xiuzhu Liu Wanli

China has taken many effective measures in biodiversity conservation, such as the giant panda breeding plan is "a good practice, but also very successful", the Director-General of the Union for Conservation of Nature in Switzerland, Bruno Oberle, commented in a video interview with Xinhua News Agency a few days ago.

The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity will kick off in Kunming, China, on the 11th. Oberle will be video-connected to the conference.

Oberer, which has extensive experience in environmental protection, believes that the global challenge of protecting the natural environment and biodiversity requires major changes at the social and economic levels. The roots of these challenges are closely linked to our current patterns of production and consumption, and the challenges of the two are interrelated, "if one of them is not solved, we will not be able to meet the other".

He said that biodiversity and climate change were two areas of interaction, the former helping to mitigate the effects of climate change, which in itself was one of the causes of biodiversity and species loss. China has contributed in both areas: on the one hand, it plays an increasingly important role in addressing climate change, setting thoughtful and ambitious targets for the development of a low-carbon economy, and on the other hand, taking many effective measures to protect biodiversity.

In addition to the giant panda breeding program, according to Ober, the "nature-based solution" promoted by the IUCN has also been recognized and promoted in China. Under this concept, suppose a village encounters a flood or landslide, the solution is not to rely on reinforced concrete, but to plant more trees to form a green protective belt, thus protecting the village from these disasters.

He said the IUCN, in cooperation with the Chinese government, has successfully carried out this practice in China.

Oberle said China is playing an increasingly important role in the IUCN, with 500 researchers and scholars from China working on different technical committees of the alliance and contributing to the alliance's scientific research and data analysis work around the world.

OP15 is very important because there are many issues that need to be considered, and the IUCN provides technical support for this, Oberle said, and hopes that participants can finally reach a consensus on biodiversity conservation. Among them, the issue of funding is also a concern, because causes such as restoring the natural ecological environment and better protecting species require funds, and "we need to increase investment in this area on a global scale."

He said: "For the survival of human beings on this planet, we have to make a joint effort to face common challenges, and we can only find solutions by cooperating in this direction." ”