On Sept. 7, Minister Li Ganjie met with Madame Cristiana Paşca Palmer, the Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in Beijing. The two sides exchanged views on further deepening cooperation and jointly promoting the biodiversity conservation in China and in the world as a whole.

Li began by greeting the delegation headed by Executive Secretary Palmer, on behalf of Ministry of Environmental Protection, and then gave a brief description on the progress made by China in the ecological environment conservation and the implementation of the CBD. He said, China as one of the earliest Contracting Parties has done a considerable amount of fruitful work in the implementation of the CBD. It set up China National Committee for Biodiversity Conservation which is chaired by Vice Premier of the State Council, promulgated the Strategy and Action Plan for Biodiversity Conservation in China (2011-2030), and implemented major projects on the conservation of biological diversity. As a result, the laws, regulations, and programs and plans have been increasingly improved, a basic network for biodiversity conservation has been established, and the general public and the society are getting more involved in biodiversity conservation.

The COP 15 of the CBD and the Conference of the Parties to its protocols will be held in China in 2020, which reflects the full recognition of the international society to China’s biodiversity conservation efforts and will push for China to make new strides and take biodiversity conservation up to new levels. China is looking forward to working with the international community to outline the blueprint for biodiversity conservation, and will take the initiative to keep contacts with the Secretariat and relevant stakeholders, play its part as the host country of the COP 15, and mobilize the resources and wisdoms of all parties, in an effort to enable the COP 15 to become a highly productive event.

Executive Secretary Madame Palmer highly recognizes China’s achievements in biodiversity conservation and the implementation of the CBD. She said, the international community is currently at a stage with an important opportunity for promoting biodiversity conservation, so the Secretariat stands ready to seize the opportunity presented by China’s hosting of the COP 15 to establish strong partnership with China, and uplift the position and role of biodiversity conservation in the international agenda. She believes and will help make sure China organizes a historic and outstanding conference of parties for the CBD.