The Ministry of Environmental Protection of People’s Republic of China (MEP) hosted a major event in Beijing to celebrate the International Day of Biodiversity on May 22, 2013. Mr. LI Ganjie, the Secretary-general of China National Committee for Biodiversity Conservation and Vice Minister of MEP, inaugurated the event together with Mr. ZHANG Xinsheng, IUCN President, Mr. ZHANG Shigang, Country Coordinator of UNEP China Office, and Mr. Carsten Germer, Assistant of Country Coordinator of UNDP China. More than 200 invitees from governments, universities, NGOs and media participated in the event.

It has become a tradition for MEP to conduct public campaign on this day every year, advocating for biodiversity conservation in China. Also, echoing with UN Decade on Biodiversity 2011-2020, China has its National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2030 (NBSAP) passed by the State Council in 2010, and established in 2011 China National Committee on Biodiversity Protection (CNCBP) as a permanent mechanism in 2011. With these vigorous steps taken to reinforce biodiversity conservation, China witnessed significant improvement of public awareness regarding biodiversity conservation.

This year’s event achieved even greater influence than previous years. The renowned anchor of China’s most watched news program CCTV-1 News Broadcast, Mr. LANG Yongchun, was invited to be the goodwill ambassador of the China Action for Biodiversity Conservation. Text messages were sent on his behalf to 210,000 citizens’ cell phones, calling for individual action to protect biodiversity and nearly one thousand zealous feedbacks were received. The QQ Messenger, Chinese synonym for MSN, used a designed graphic interface dedicated to the International Day of Biodiversity, which was seen by 300 million Chinese citizens who logged on QQ on this day.

The event also kicked off a substantial campaign plan“ Six Ones”, which will be carried out by MEP in joint hands with various social sectors for the next eight years till 2020. The plan will involve activities such as community projects, book donation, film festival, academic and capacity-building seminars as well as documentation shooting in a series of schools and Nature Reserves in China.

‘Biodiversity conservation is the common mission of the human race, and a national strategy of the Chinese government,’ said Vice Minister Li Ganjie of MEP at the event: ‘Beautiful China, a homeland of blue sky, green landscape and clean water, all these can never be achieved without biodiversity.’