On October 24, representative of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) was invited to attend the fifth Female Scientist Forum, the satellite symposium of the International Conference on Genomics held in Shenzhen, with the objective of offering a platform for exchanges and communication. CBCGDF delegate shared the civil efforts and achievements made by Chinese female in promoting the construction of ecological civilization and biodiversity conservation.
Gender equality is the key content of United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs). From the international perspective, an increasing number of the leaders in UN agencies and nature conservation organizations are female, including the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Wetlands (the RAMSAR Convention), and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which shows the importance attached by the international community to the SGD 5 Gender Equality.
Then, the representative introduced what the Ecological Civilization concept is, and the importance of building eco-civilization. As the delegate shared, eco-civilization is the new phase of the human civilization development. “Industrialization, while generating unprecedented material wealth, has incurred serious damage to Mother Nature. Development without thought to the future is not sustainable.” With the earlier Earth Overshoot Day each year, over-consumption of natural resources and the plight posed by the growth to the limit, it is high time for human being to head to the era of ecological civilization.
Faced with multiple global challenges like biodiversity loss and climate change, China has been committed to the national policy of resources saving and environmental protection. China advocates to cherish the eco-environment like our own life and carry out organic governance over various eco-systems like mountain, rivers, forestry, farmland, lake and grass via implementing the strictest eco-environment protection mechanism to develop green life and production styles. Moreover, the Environmental Protection Law, newly revised in 2015, encourages community and social organizations to engage in environment governance, and provides legal assurance for this governance pattern.
The delegate presented with several vivid examples to illustrate women’s power and social organizations’ efforts at accelerating the green transition from industrialized civilization to ecological civilization.
Guided by the philosophy of Ecological Civilization, China has developed inclusive and open attitude toward environmental governance and encouraged wide public participation and supervision by legislation, thus forming a comprehensive layout of social governance in modern times. Women who can play significant role in social and environmental governance are advancing the ecological civilization and green development as more and more female engage in natural protection campaigns.
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/10223.html
By / Wang Yanqing