In the afternoon of December 18, H.E. Dr. Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of Climate Change and Environment for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), HE.Dr. Ali Obaid Al Dhaheri, Ambassador of the UAE to China and other high-level officers paid a visit to China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) and held a meeting with Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, Secretary-General of CBCGDF.

As President Xi Jinping pointed out, China-UAE relations featuring ambitious goals, rich content and mutual benefit and reciprocity should be pursued generation after generation, and have set an example of strategic cooperation for countries from different regions, with different cultures and of various types. This year, marking the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relationship between China and the UAE, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi led a delegation to China in July. During his visit to China, the two leaders signed the joint statement on stressing strategic partnership. The two sides will accelerate the joint construction of the Belt and Road Initiative with high quality, strengthen the alignment of each other's development strategies.

Delegates from CBCGDF introduced efforts at advancing environmental governance made by Chinese social organizations to the Minister, including biodiversity conservation, Community Conservation Area system (CCAfa) based on people’s participation, environmental public interest litigation over ancient date tree protection and anti-poaching.

Dr. Zhou Jinfeng showed a warm welcome to the Minister and distinguished delegates from the UAE and the Embassy. He mainly elaborated on the philosophy of Ecological Civilization and effective measures to conserve biodiversity and combat climate change in the context of the upcoming CBD COP15. He gave a detailed introduction to the Chinese social organization's effort at promoting ecological environment protection, including the plight of migratory species conservation, environmental problems triggered by food delivery and the use of plastic book covers, CBCGDF's practice at regulating Green Meeting Index (GMI).

After the meeting, Dr. Zhou issued the letter of award to the Minister and invited him to contribute his wisdom to CBCGDF as the Honorable Advisor, and gave The Selected Cases of Environmental Public Interest Litigation compiled by CBCGDF to the Ambassador as a memento. CBCGDF will continue to conserve biodiversity and strengthen people-to-people bonds. We are looking forward to joining hands with the UAE organizations to protect endangered species and contribute to the global construction of Ecological Civilization.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4937/10746.html

By / Wang Yanqing