Beyond Montreal

In the coming years, China will have an indispensable role to play by sustaining its whole-of-society approach to nature conservation

Part II of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) is ongoing in Montreal, Canada, after Part I was hosted in Kunming, China, in October 2021. Most analysis of COP 15 over the past year and a half has been dominated by coverage of the high-level diplomacy and negotiations by national policymakers. But that top-level focus has often failed to highlight how China's presidency of the Convention on Biological Diversity has created new engagement and leadership opportunities for the country's local institutions, civil society, private sector actors and individual citizens around efforts to protect and regenerate nature.

After the conclusion of Part II in Montreal, which is currently underway, sustaining the positive momentum behind this whole-of-society approach toward nature conservation in China, which is the powerhouse economy among the CBD signatory nations, must be the top priority. Doing so will help ensure that we are able to more effectively address one of the most pressing global issues of the time: the alarming decline in biodiversity and complex ecosystems worldwide.

For many years now, there has been a growing political prioritization of conservation underway at the national level in China. However, China's COP 15 presidency has delivered an additional boost to biodiversity on the national agenda and within the Chinese leadership's vision of building an "ecological civilization".

This is evident in the accelerated rollout of top-down measures focused on helping reverse the tide of nature loss and restoring ecosystems — from the introduction of new laws protecting the Yangtze and Yellow rivers, as well as wetlands nationwide, to the ongoing build-out of the world's largest national park system to a new five-year plan for building a "green technology innovation system" to address environmental issues.These strengthening political commitments have now created an environment which is highly conducive for diversified groups of stakeholders to make more active contributions to nature conservation efforts.

Organizing COP 15 itself is a massive undertaking, with the headline Part I and Part II events representing the culmination of a long diplomatic process through which China has been responsible for facilitating negotiations among the various parties. Chinese state institutions are the lead actors responsible for the process, but they have relied heavily on inputs from both domestic and international civil society, private sector actors and citizen volunteers.

Designating Kunming as the center for China's COP 15 activities has also put the world's focus on one of the country's most biodiverse but smaller regional capitals, helping to expand the channels for engagement on biodiversity in China and expand the mix of actors contributing to efforts to address the nature crisis. While the Chinese NGO sector is small relative to other countries, COP 15 has presented an important opportunity for local environmental organizations to demonstrate their value and extend their networks. Many have provided pivotal research and policy advice, organized supporting dialogue and seminar events, and contributed to galvanizing public awareness in China of the summit.

Continuing to deepen Chinese NGOs' engagement on the biodiversity agenda will be a key pillar of China's legacy for its COP 15 presidency — and it will be particularly important to ensure that smaller organizations are kept fully involved given that many of them, unfortunately, will not be able to attend Part II in Montreal following its relocation from Kunming.

Engaging the world's business community, in which Chinese companies hold continually growing sway and influence, will be critical to achieving the biodiversity goals set at COP 15 Part II. Like their counterparts globally, Chinese business leaders have become increasingly aware of the degree to which the health of their national economy — and by extension their own companies — is underpinned by natural systems. This has led a growing number of domestic companies to elevate biodiversity concerns on their sustainability agendas.

For example, Huawei has launched more initiatives aimed at leveraging technology to enable wildlife conservation, including efforts to support the repopulation of the Hainan gibbon, as well as safeguard the habitats of giant pandas. Last summer, Nio and the United Nations Development Programme announced plans to cooperate on biodiversity conservation in China's protected areas and national parks, with a focus on mobilizing the private sector to expand its efforts to protect nature.

Protecting global biodiversity will not be possible without full support from the world's largest national population. One of the largely overlooked benefits of China's COP 15 presidency has been the opportunity to drive greater awareness of the importance of biodiversity conservation among the Chinese public and encourage individuals to step up their involvement. Since the start of preparations in 2018, awareness of biodiversity conservation issues has risen steadily in the country.

With the move to Montreal putting Part II's activities out of the time zone, language and physical reach of most Chinese citizens, however, it will be important for NGOs and companies to run campaigns that keep the public actively engaged on the new global biodiversity agenda that ultimately emerges.

For some people, especially in Chinese civil society, the relocation of COP 15's Part II out of China has been seen as a lost opportunity to showcase what China has achieved so far in promoting biodiversity. But the strong achievements of Part I — particularly China's establishment of the 1.5-billion-yuan ($214.5 million) Kunming Biodiversity Fund and the signing of the landmark Kunming Declaration — along with the many domestic initiatives around conservation established in the lead-up to the event are already in place. Moreover, the mainstreaming of biodiversity protection as a priority among ordinary citizens and private sector actors in China looks set to have an enduring impact on the country's contributions to the goals set by the CBD.

In Montreal, all eyes will be on the final targets that are ultimately agreed upon in the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework. And in the coming years, China will have an indispensable role to play in turning that new global vision for biodiversity conservation into a reality.

Ge Yingxue is a graduate student at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Benjamin Cooper is a former policy analyst at the Confederation of British Industry. Juliet Lu is an assistant professor in Forest Resource Management and Public Policy & Global Affairs at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.