By Xu Zhuowei
At 8:00 a.m. Beijing time on December 10, Yu Ting, Party Secretary of Longguan Township, Haishu District, Ningbo, issued the Guidelines for Biodiversity-friendly Township Planning at the China Pavilion during the second part of the 15^th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Montreal, Canada. The 75-member audience included Contracting Party representatives, experts, and scholars from 18 countries.
The Guidelines, available in both Chinese and English, encapsulate Longguan's nine best practices—forming a specialized biodiversity planning committee, leveraging partnerships, etc— under four categories that included green industries development and inclusive governance. The Guidelines are the first of its kind in China.
"Prioritizing ecological protection above all else has become Longguan's overarching policy." Zhou Honghua, director of the Haishu Branch of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, said that it was the combined effort of the public and private sectors, academia, and citizens that made Longguan China's first biodiversity-friendly township. Biodiversity protection also facilitated rural revitalization and increased citizens' incomes.
In recent years, biodiversity has become a major consideration in Longguan's development strategy, spatial planning, and infrastructure construction. Over a thousand residents across four villages are now connected to a free solar power grid, as part of Longguan's low-carbon strategy.
Before the construction of Simingshan Ring Road, hundreds of rare plants were temporarily transferred to Ningbo Botanical Garden.
The forest coverage rate of the 73-km^2 Longguan Township is now 85%. It has 25 nationally-designated first- and second-class protected animal and plant species, such as Elliot's pheasant, the narrow quillwort, and Maire's yew.
Longguan has more than twenty biodiversity tourist destinations, which have received more than 160,000 visitors combined. In the first 11 months of this year, the revenue of Longguan tourism was ?63 million, exceeding the total of last year.
Chief Adviser: Zhao Qingchuan
Proofreader: Gou Wen