YEREVAN, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's experience in biodiversity conservation offers valuable lessons for the world, particularly in combining ambitious commitments with sound science, effective institutions and long-term investment, the UN biodiversity chief said on Monday.
Astrid Schomaker, executive secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), made the remarks in an interview with Xinhua on the sidelines of the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD (COP17), which began on Monday in Yerevan, capital of Armenia.
China's experience is particularly evident in the scale of its conservation efforts and its integration of biodiversity into national development planning, Schomaker said.
Its ecological conservation redline system, national parks network, ecological restoration programs and investments in biodiversity monitoring demonstrate practical approaches to implementing national commitments, she said.
In her eyes, three lessons stand out from China's experience: conservation must be integrated into broader economic and land-use planning; ecological restoration requires sustained investment; and effective monitoring is essential to measuring results.
China's contribution extends beyond its domestic efforts. "Its continued support for multilateral cooperation is especially valuable amid today's geopolitical challenges," Schomaker said.
China helped bring the world together around a common plan for nature, and its continued leadership will help turn that plan into results, she said.
Schomaker highlighted China's role in securing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (KMGBF), one of the most significant international agreements for nature in decades.
As COP15 president, China helped guide complex negotiations among countries with different priorities and capacities. Working closely with Canada, host of the Montreal meeting, China helped build the consensus needed to adopt the framework and its 23 targets, she said.
"That was a landmark diplomatic achievement," Schomaker said. Four years later, the challenge is to turn the agreement into measurable results. "COP15 gave us the plan. COP17 is about making that plan work."
Financing is key to implementation. China established the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to help developing countries strengthen their capacity for biodiversity conservation. Schomaker described the fund as an important instrument for the CBD, created specifically to support implementation of the KMGBF.
The fund seeks to align its support with decisions made by parties under the convention and help developing countries implement them, Schomaker said.
She also highlighted the fund's ability to attract private-sector contributions alongside China's government funding. "So that is very good news for us," she said.
Schomaker deems South-South cooperation particularly valuable because countries facing similar challenges can share practical experience, technology and expertise.
The effectiveness of biodiversity finance should be measured by whether it strengthens national capacity, improves conservation and restoration outcomes, supports local communities and helps countries achieve their biodiversity targets, she said.
The first global review of progress in implementing the KMGBF, to be conducted at COP17, shows encouraging engagement, Schomaker said. Nearly 90 percent of parties have established national biodiversity targets, and more than 140 countries have submitted national reports. However, fewer than half of the aligned national targets assessed by parties themselves are currently on track.
The largest gaps concern targets requiring changes to economic systems, particularly those related to business impacts and disclosure, sustainable consumption, harmful subsidies and biodiversity finance. Significant shortfalls also remain in protected-area coverage and efforts to address invasive alien species, she said.
"The fundamental challenge is that biodiversity cannot remain the responsibility of environment ministries alone." Progress increasingly depends on decisions by finance, agriculture, energy and other economic ministries, Schomaker said.
A major challenge is ensuring that developing countries have adequate, predictable and accessible financial resources to implement their commitments, she said. Developing countries emphasize the need for greater international support, while developed countries stress mobilizing finance from a wider range of sources and improving its effectiveness. Both are essential.
Countries have agreed to mobilize at least 200 billion U.S. dollars annually for biodiversity by 2030. Yet the United Nations Environment Program estimates that for every dollar invested in protecting nature, approximately 30 dollars go toward activities that harm it.
"We cannot close the biodiversity finance gap simply by adding more money while continuing to finance biodiversity destruction," Schomaker said.
COP17 needs to make progress in delivering financial commitments, improving access to funding, strengthening capacity and reforming harmful subsidies and incentives, so that economic decisions support rather than undermine nature, she said.■
