On August 13th, at the “Global Governance Youth Summit Forum” held in Beijing, a young man asked some questions to Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), and Dr. Zhou gave the answers. Below is the conservation shared with readers.
Question 1: "Hello, Mr. Zhou. One question I want to ask is that, of the most striking contradictions in this industrial development model is that if you want to develop the local economy, the ecology will inevitably decline. If you want to protect the ecology, the economic development is bound to decline. I think they should reach a balanced development of benign development. Then, how do you think about this situation? How can we do both ecology and economy at the same time? In addition, I think one more question is that I especially want to know in terms of the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, in the event of the hydropower station in Sumatra, did you finally find a new treatment plan to protect the living environment of the orangutans? Thank you.”
Dr. Zhou: “The problem of the orangutan in Sumatra, Indonesia, has not yet been resolved.”
“With regard to ecology and development, we now have a very vivid example. In the past few days, we are dealing with the event of ‘Bund wetland in Sun Island, Harbin'. The local government ordered that it be open to increase tourism, which may be a disaster for the wetland ecology.
Conflicts like these, such as the conflict of civilization, the conflict of protection and development are actually very common. There is no absolute definition of how to better balance the two. However, we must seize the main contradictions today and must consider the most important things. What is the most important thing? The most important thing we have today is the problem of human habitat. In the era of ecological civilization, the most important thing is not to 'eat the last grain of wheat', but to 'plant the last grain of wheat on the ground and cultivate more wheat'. This is our top priority today.
In the era of ecological civilization, our country has stopped many projects in order to protect the ecological environment and let nature recuperate. For example, Baiji Dolphin is an ancient species unique to the Yangtze River and an indicative species of the Yangtze River ecology. But in 2007, it was declared "functional extinction" by Chinese and foreign scientists. In the meantime, in 2018, the “citizen scientists” from the CBCGDF's Enterprise Photography Nature Fund (EPNF) recorded an image of Baiji Dolphin (Yangtze River Dolphin) on their field research and patrolling for freshwater. In order to protect them, some local port construction, fishing, sand dredging and other activities have stopped. For another example, the Yangtze River Maritime Bureau cancelled the parking area in Heisha Zhou. We pay tribute to this ecological protection act.
Our industrial civilization is now on a wasteful road, including all kinds of waste in the fields of dressing and diet. This is actually a push for capital. Let me give you an example. Everyone knows the plastic flower, and it has been popular for a while. However, today, plastic flowers should not exist anymore today, from oil extraction, to chemical plant smelting, to coloring, transportation, etc., and finally to our meeting rooms and offices. It pollutes the mountains and rivers of our hometown, wastes resource, increases carbon dioxide emissions, and even pollutes the air. Our aesthetics should be updated, and we should not have such false beauty, absolutely no necessary decorations, and should not live this extravagant and wasteful life. In general, we should be guided by the requirements of ecological civilization. We must transcend the old aesthetics of the industrial civilization era and practice a new and sustainable lifestyle in order to truly realize ecological civilization. We should fundamentally change ourselves. Thank you.”
The coordination between environmental protection and economic development is actually to embark on a new path of high-quality development oriented to ecological priority and sustainable development. This requires us to understand and put it into practice.
(The above is according to the live record, with the confirmation of the speakers.)
(Photo credit: CBCGDF)
Original Chinese article:
http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9704.html
By / Maggie