China has demonstrated its deep commitment to sustainable development and biodiversity with a strong presence at the seventh meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which opens today in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The largest delegation China ever sent to the UN conference consists of 26 members, including officials and experts as well as professionals from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

For the first time, representatives from the Ministry of Commerce, the State Food and Drug Administration and the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine are included.

The Convention on Biological Diversity is a legal framework seeking a comprehensive approach to sustainable development through three main goals: Conservation of biological diversity; sustainable use of its components; and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from the use of genetic resources.

The convention has been ratified by 187 countries and the European Union, which constitute the Conference of the Parties (COP).

China was the 64th member country of the United Nations to sign the Convention on Biological Diversity at the Earth Summit in June 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, and was among the first countries in the world to ratify the convention in November 1992, a year before it came into force on December 29, 1993.

A co-ordinating group, spanning 20 ministries and institutions, was set up soon after for the implementation of the convention in China.

Priority topics in the seventh meeting's agenda include the biological diversity of mountain ecosystems, the role of protected areas in the preservation of biological diversity, access to genetic resources and benefit-sharing, and the transfer of technology and technology cooperation.

The topics to be discussed at the two meetings "are very important and will have great impact on our national interests in the future", according to Cheng Weixue, an official with the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). "We should get all the related departments involved at an early stage."

China's role

Covering a land territory of 9.6 million square kilometers, China has ecosystems as diversified as tropical rain forests, tundra, wetlands, deserts, alpine meadows and marine systems. With over 30,000 species of plants and more than 6,300 species of vertebrates, China ranks among the top 10 countries in the world in diversity of animal and plant species, and has one of the most important stocks of genetic diversity.

China's biodiversity is an important component of the world system, says Wang Dehui, deputy director of the Department of Natural Environmental Conservation and head of China's co-ordinating group for the implementation of the convention. "To protect China's biodiversity will contribute greatly to the protection of natural heritage of humanity," he says.

As the biggest developing country in the world, China has been caught between the pressure for economic development and the need to preserve ecosystems, and has tried to keep a balance between the two. "We stand for enhancing environmental protection while developing the economy," says Wang. "To develop the economy at the cost of ecology is not sustainable and won't last long."

In the decade since it ratified the convention, China has been active in participating in international cooperation to implement the legal framework for a comprehensive approach to sustainable development, Wang says. The Chinese Government sent delegations to all the previous six meetings of the Conference of Parities, as well as many regional and sub-regional events.

Aside from submitting two country reports on its implementation of the convention and a number of special reports to the secretariat, China has conducted research on the state of China's biological diversity and formulated the Action Plan to preserve it, according to Wang. The legislation and enforcement of laws concerning the conservation of biodiversity have also been enhanced.

With more than 20 laws and regulations on the protection of the land and marine environment, fisheries, forestry, seeds and water; pollution prevention and control; wild-animal conservation and land management, a fairly complete legal system has been established to conserve the country's biodiversity, observes Li Xiaohua, program officer with the Environmental Protection Committee under the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Meanwhile, a nationwide network of protected areas has been set up, with a total of 1,763 nature reserves across the country, covering about 14 per cent of China's total land area. "Now 80 per cent of China's wild animal species and 60 per cent of advanced plant species, including most of the highly endangered species under the special protection of the State, are found in the protected areas," Li says.

Despite remarkable achievements in China's implementation of the convention, says Li, there remain challenges to the country's efforts to conserve its biodiversity. "Although China has had a good beginning to have a legal regime for the overall environmental protection, there is still a big vacuum in the legislation concerning biodiversity conservation," she points out.

For one thing, she says, the legislation concerning access to genetic resources and technology transfer is lacking.

"For a developing country, access to genetic resources and technology transfer are two important measures to conserve domestic biodiversity," she says.

As far as the natural ecosystem is concerned, China has promulgated nine laws covering forests, grasslands, fisheries, wildlife, water, mineral resources and land.

"But these laws are mainly aimed at managing the use of these natural resources rather than conserving natural ecosystems," Li says. "Special provisions on the conservation of ecosystems are still missing."

(China Daily February 9, 2004)