“We Aim to Help People, Not Scold People” | CBCGDF’s Constructive Visit to French Development Agency
2019/3/7 16:51:00 本站

On March 6, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) had a constructive meeting with representatives from French Development Agency (AFD). Both parties highly acknowledged the meeting’s outcome and expressed hope to explore further cooperation in the future.

 

A World in Common” is the new slogan adopted by AFD to inspire all its members. The idea is to build a world that leaves no one behind, in terms of fairness and sustainability. During the meeting, AFD representatives described the its main goal as “Do Green Finance”. That is, since AFD has strong commitment to slowing down climate change and ensuring biodiversity, it has a strong responsibility of only funding clean projects, which may rely on various methods (adaptation, mitigation, sequestration) to contribute to the achievement of the UN Aichi Targets. “In fact, we need to take 3-4 times more effort in order to really meet the Aichi Targets”, said AFD representatives.

 

In order to convince businesses to be cleaner, more responsible, and more actively safeguard the environment, AFD’s activities are organized and extended with various tools, including technology, laws and local think tanks etc. Among them, collaborating with local Non-profitable Government Organizations is one of the many possibilities AFD has been keenly working on. “We have known from various channels that CBCGDF is make great contributions to green and sustainable development.”

 

Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, CBCGDF’s Secretary-General, deeply appreciated AFD’s support and encouragement. He said that “CBCGDF’s long-held belief that public participation is key to environmental protection is one of the many reasons”. He also mentioned that, when submitting proposals to Convention on Biodiversity Diversity (CBD) for the Post-2020 Biodiversity Framework, CBCGDF ranked “public participation” as one priority.

 

Public potential in enhancing citizens’ environmental awareness and involvement can be tremendous.” Dr. Zhou used the story of CBCGDF’s volunteers protecting the endangered pangolin species as an example. Pangolins are the most severely trafficked endangered animals worldwide. Protective actions towards them began 30 years ago, but what has been confusing is that with 30 years of protection pangolins were announced commercially extinct in around 1996. To some extent, CBCGDF’s vast net of volunteers has helped reshape this poor creature’s destiny. For instance, in 2017, they had successfully convinced the public that, through reporting cases such as "Pangolin Prince" and “Pangolin Princess" on the Internet, eating pangolins is not right. In 2018, volunteers made great efforts to take stock of pangolins and their products, in order to track their whereabouts and prevent black market trading. They visited various agencies, departments and authorities in order to how many and what pangolin products were being sold, where they came from, and what actually happened to pangolins in and out of wild animal rescue centers etc. CBCGDF then made all the information available to the public. Now, pangolin protection has become one of most heatedly discussed topics in China with respect to biodiversity conservation.

 

Another work ideology aligned almost perfectly between AFD and CBCGDF is their joint emphasis on corporate responsibility. “Entrepreneurs in China have been paying increasingly more attention to their public image. This is good news”, said AFD representatives. “Yes”, said CBCGDF representatives, “and we can use the Bluefin Tuna story to tell more about it”.

 

On June 11th, JD.com, one of the largest e-commerce companies in China, announced its plan to sell blue fin tuna on its platform. CBCGDF’s volunteers spotted JD’s announcement, immediately wrote letters to the CEO, emphasizing on the critically endangered status of the Bluefin Tuna. Realizing potential consequences for its public image, JD officially responded on June 12th that they would not sell any Bluefin Tuna on their platform.

 

We should work together to convince others that ‘Ecological Civilization’ is not merely a superfluous slogan; In fact, it can be realized and must so.” At the end of the meeting, Dr. Zhou and AFD representatives agreed that, while problems would certainly arise, international cooperation consistent with “A World in Common” should nonetheless be firmly adhered to, since it is left to people worldwide to admit past mistakes and change for the better, as long as “Living in Harmony with Nature” remains on the agenda of sustainable human development.


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(Photo credit: CBCGDF)


By / Lu Lei