President Xi Jinping pointed out at the National Conference on Ecological Environment Protection last year that we should contribute to building global ecological civilization, with special emphasis on participating in global environmental governance in depth and enhancing our voice and influence in the global environmental governance system. Recently, in order to promote the conservation and sustainable utilization of genetic resources for local food and agriculture in China, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) and Beijing Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences (BAAFS) co-organized a seminar themed “Conservation and Benefit Sharing of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Focusing on Agricultural Biodiversity After 2020”. Mr. Lv Keqin, CBCGDF expert, Major General of the Air Force, was invited to attend the meeting and made a wrapping-up speech. The following is the main content of this speech shared with readers:

Distinguished guests, experts, and scholars,

After a day of intensive and fruitful discussions, this seminar on “Conservation and Benefit Sharing of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Focusing on Agricultural Biodiversity After 2020” is coming to an end.

Through the speeches delivered by Mr. Xie Boyang, consultant of the State Council, the head of CBCGDF, relevant leader of the Seed Industry Management Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Li Chenggui, the dean of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences, Dr. Vincent Martin, FAO Representative in China and DPR Korea, and Mr. Kent Nnadozie, the Secretary of the International Treaty on Plants Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), we can see that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs has established a seed industry management department after the institutional reform, which systematically manages agricultural resources, including plants, livestock and poultry, and also establishes large gene banks. At present, the state will also invest money to protect seed resources and store them for research, development, and utilization.

From Li Chenggui's speech, we also deeply realize that the national scientific research institutions, including many experts, have carried out a lot of fruitful work in germplasm resources and genetic resources. In particular, it is astonishing to visit the exhibition hall of the Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences at lunch break today. Maize Center, Vegetable Center, Machinery Automation, Watermelon Gene Spectrum Sequencing, and other fields have been greatly encouraged. China's science and technology are also making great progress with the development of world technology, which really touches us.

In his keynote report, Mr. Kent Nnadozie gave a detailed introduction to the work and implementation of the Treaty. Especially on the basis of industry, international cooperation among countries, such as gene networks, sharing of breeding research resources, and improving protection work and efficiency utilization, and deepen our understanding of FAO.

Experts and scholars at the meeting introduced and explained the United Nations’ Convention on Biological Diversity (UN CBD) and the International Treaty on Plants Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture from different perspectives, so that people could have a further understanding of the Treaty and the Convention from the technical, legal and international levels, and also provided a large number of professional content support for the topics at afternoon.

Throughout the seminar, I drew a conclusion on the following three points.

Firstly, plants genetic resources on food and agriculture need to be protected urgently. At present, with the gradual disappearance of agricultural biodiversity, the current situation and problems of global agriculture have attracted the attention of all parties. In particular, the large-scale substitution of single genotype crop varieties for various natural varieties will lead to huge agricultural risks. Agricultural sustainable development is not only reflected in soil improvement, reducing the use of pesticides and fertilizers but also in the protection and sharing of plant genetic resources. We should pay attention to it and put it into action.

Secondly, CBCGDF promotes China's accession to the International Treaty on Plants Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. At present, China has completed a lot of preliminary work for its accession to the Treaty, and CBCGDF has been actively promoting this work in recent years. Especially in 2017, Mr. Xie Boyang formally submitted the proposal of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which received a positive response from the Ministry of Agriculture. This work will continue to move forward. At this meeting, many valuable opinions were put forward, including proposing to start some procedures of accession to the treaty in time, organizing discussions and demonstrations at different levels, further improving the laws and regulations on benefit sharing, and formulating relevant laws and regulations on treaties, in an effort to promote China's early accession to the treaty and ensure the treaty is carried out smoothly after accession. During the discussion at afternoon, some experts and scholars especially stressed that China's accession to the Treaty is conducive to China's Deep Participation in international affairs and its right to speak, which is closely related to national interests.

Thirdly, the issue of synergy. We should take active action to jointly promote the protection of biodiversity after 2020 and curb the trend of its continuous loss. China is one of the earliest parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Next year, the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the United Nation's Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) will be held in Kunming, Yunnan Province, China.It will mainly discuss and formulate a framework for post-2020 work to advance the global action on biodiversity conservation.

The seminar has a lot of positive effects on the protection of agricultural biodiversity and the accession to the Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. As a largely agricultural country and one of the eight major centers of crop origin in the world, China has a long-term and profound significance in protecting and utilizing crop genetic resources. In addition, there are experts work on minority culture research, the traditional crops left over from the primitive farming society are really important and worthy of attention.

There is an organic link between crop genetic resources and the security of the agricultural ecosystem, and it is inseparable and interdependent with the whole ecological environment of nature. Therefore, biodiversity conservation occupies a special position in the construction of ecological civilization. A series of ecological crises caused by the decline of crop genetic diversity that will pose a great challenge to the sustainable development of human beings. Biodiversity is the diversity of genetic genes, species, and ecosystems. It is the most important factor for the stability of the regional ecosphere and also a treasure house of rich biological resources. Therefore, biodiversity is the foundation of life in the global village and must be actively protected. On behalf of CBCGDF, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to Mr. Kent Nnadozie, guests, experts, and scholars.

After the seminar, CBCGDF will actively reflect achievements to relevant departments and continue to assist in promoting accession to the Treaty.

Finally, I wish this seminar will surely be a complete success. Thank you!

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/8007.html

By / Li Xue Modified / Niu Jingmei