Regional govts strengthen green ties

Lower tiers of government in countries are playing an important role in boosting biodiversity, experts said ahead of a United Nations conference aimed at increasing protection for the natural world.

The experts were speaking in advance of COP15, the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity, which opened in Montreal, Canada, on Wednesday. China is serving as the host of the talks, which end on Dec 19.

"As for many environmental issues, regional governments such as states and provinces play a very large part," said Ken Alex, director of project climate at University of California Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy & the Environment in the United States.

For the first time at the biodiversity convention, there will be a pavilion focused entirely on the actions of subnational and local governments, as well as the opportunities available to them.

But in California, which has longstanding climate ties with China, there already have been many examples of cooperation between the two sides to boost biodiversity.

"California has worked with Chinese provinces on multiple matters, including biodiversity, creating opportunities for mutual benefits through scientific and policy exchange," Alex told China Daily. "As development pressure creates new challenges for biodiversity, cooperation and exchange are essential."

China's Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu and California Governor Gavin Newsom met in a virtual meeting in April to sign a memorandum of understanding to advance cooperation on initiatives to achieve carbon neutrality, expand clean transportation and accelerate nature-based solutions.

The memorandum renewed a prior version signed by former California governor Jerry Brown in 2018.

"California and China have been in some discussion about sharing best practices and potentially funding nature-based climate solutions," said Ethan Elkind, climate program director at UC Berkeley's Center for Law, Energy& the Environment.

Areas across China and California are pioneering nature-based solutions, according to the California-China Climate Institute at UC Berkeley. The institute was launched in 2019 by Brown. It serves as California's main liaison for information-sharing and communication under the memorandum.

Nature-based solutions refer to the practice of sustainable management and the use of natural resources to combat climate change and protect biodiversity. Some examples include the restoration, protection and improved management across forests, wetlands, agricultural land, oceans and urban spaces.

China has implemented a number of nature-based activities over the past 20 years, experts at the institute said in a blog. One example of a nature-based solution launched by China is the Ecological Conservation Redlines initiative, experts said.

The strategy was first proposed in 2011. It is designed to supplement the country's growing system of protected areas by defining limits to human encroachment on forests, wetlands and other precious ecosystems, as well as enforcing strict conservation in those areas.

China has now brought 18 percent of its land territory under protection, Huang said in a recent interview with China Daily.

The California-China Climate Institute has hosted several webinars in which participants expressed a strong interest in collaboration, joint research and policy learning between China and California.

Robin Craig, an environmental law professor at University of Southern California, recalled a recent online lecture where she gave a workshop on ecological compensation and restoration of the Yellow River. The workshop focused on strategies to shift water back into rivers to enhance their biodiversity, said Craig.

"Partnerships such as this workshop, seeking to exchange information about different ways to reallocate water and to value biodiversity, in this case, aquatic biodiversity, could be valuable for everyone," she told China Daily.

teresaliu@chinadailyusa.com