On Earth Day 2022, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) organized a series of Earth Day activities to celebrate the festival of our mother, the Earth. Mauricio Belmonte Pijuán, Minister of the Bolivian Government to the People's Republic of China, delivered a speech on behalf of the Bolivian Embassy to CBCGDF and expressed his appreciation and thanks to CBCGDF, the organizer of the event.

（Mauricio Belmonte Pijuán）

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His speech was as follows:

My name is Mauricio Belmonte Pijuán, the Chargé d'Affaires a.i. of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in the P.R. of China, and on behalf of the Embassy of Bolivia, I am addressing the CBCGDF Earth Day events.

Now I want to refer to a fundamental date for humanity as a whole, the International Day Mother Earth. April 22 of each year since 2009 is celebrated throughout the world as "International Mother Earth Day", a date assigned by the General Assembly of the United Nations International Organization, requesting that its member states help protect and raise awareness Mother Earth and her ecosystems.

Bolivia is one of the countries that adopted a policy to care for Mother Earth through the enactment of two laws: Rights of Mother Earth, in December 2010, and Mother Earth and Integral Development for Living Well, in October 2012.Where these regulations are intended to recognize the rights of Mother Earth, in addition to the obligations and duties of the Plurinational State and society to guarantee respect for these rights.

Likewise, it establishes a vision and fundamental principles of integral development in harmony and balance with Mother Earth to Live Well, guaranteeing the continuity of the regeneration capacity of the components and life systems of Mother Earth, recovering and strengthening local knowledge and knowledge. ancestral, within the framework of the complementary of rights, and to form obligations and duties; as well as the objectives of comprehensive development as a means to achieve Living Well, the bases for planning, public management and investments and the strategic institutional framework for its implementation.

On the one hand, according to data from the Ministry of Rural Development and Land, Bolivia has an area of more than one million square kilometers, of which almost 50% is in dry regions, classified as areas in the process of degradation due to very serious erosion.

This worries small producers because the land and the soil are the basis of family farming; where from these are born the vegetable foods that we consume. Taking care of its natural state is very important to guarantee the planet's food future and it is absolutely necessary to start using sustainable development measures that prevent its degradation.

From the Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in China, I consider it appropriate on the eve of April 22, the date established to commemorate the International Day of Mother Earth, to send a respectful greeting to China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation for the noble, professional work and committed that it has been developing to promote the defense of nature in all its areas around the planet. Which is a very important job and has the objective of sustaining the protection of fauna and flora in all the species that inhabit the planet. In this regard, the Plurinational State of Bolivia has as one of its primary goals, to prioritize, through different legislations, the solid defense of Mother Nature, focusing on the ancient customs and traditions of the original peoples of Latin America, who from the beginning maintained a direct communion with the natural environment in which they were developed. The existence of the native peoples of Bolivia and the world cannot be understood without communion with nature.

There is no better opportunity than this, on the eve of April 22, the International Mother Earth Day, to pay tribute and homage precisely to the people who live daily in natural environments, such as the indigenous women of the lowlands in eastern Bolivia.

This tribute goes to them and they are justly dominated by the ambassadors of Mother Earth. In Bolivia, a green garden of incalculable proportions extends across the tropical plain, sheltering in its bosom the custodians of history and the knowledge of the native peoples who inhabit the jungle, the plains and the tropical mountains.

For centuries, Ayoreas, Guarayas, Chiquitanas and Izoce?as women have retained in their indomitable spirit the art, traditions and culture of their ancestors, who consolidated persistent and solid alliances with the natural environment in which they were born, providing this Mother Earth with a permanent gratitude conserving and protecting its environment and the life of all beings that inhabit its lush forests, tropical plains, rivers, swamps, hills and valleys.

These alliances with nature are revealed with naturalness and hubbub in the art of Izoce?a women weavers of hammocks or in the multicolored fabrics of young Chiquitanas. These hardworking and tough women know how to interpret the colors of fauna and flora in their artistic works.

Native women play a determining role in the economic development and cultural heritage of Bolivia, this circumstance that forged in 1987 the establishment of the Association of Artisans of the Countryside (Artecampo), a non-profit entity that began a process of organization, training, exchange of experiences and mutual support with 14 groups of artisans who received support from the Center for Research, Craft Design and Cooperative Marketing (CIDAC) in the city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra. Currently, Artecampo brings together more than 600 artisans, 95% of whom are women belonging to 14 local associations.

Finally, this participation would not be complete without expressing special thanks precisely to two important institutions that have a job, a job aimed at promoting the defense of nature, and they are precisely the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation and the Andean Road Countries for Science and Technology (ARCST).

Original Chinese Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/uwxONE4UNybHrKj0JfZPMw

Translator: Daisy

Editor: Samantha     

Contact: V10@cbcgdf.org; +8617319454776

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