On August 24th, the 2nd Beijing International Milu Culture Conference was successfully held by the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF), the Wildlife Protection Department of the State Forestry and Grassland Administration, the Daxing District People’s Government of Beijing, and the Zhangjiakou Municipal People’s Government of Hebei Province. The Secretary-General of the CBCGDF, Zhou Jinfeng, was invited to attend and deliver a keynote speech on “Milu Culture in the Era of Ecological Civilization". The content of Zhou Jinfeng’s speech is shared below:

“After listening to other guests’ speeches, I would like to improvise the speech draft prepared for me by the secretariat.

Milu culture should be a kind of culture in the framework of ecological civilization era. What happened after the reintroduction of Milu? Which are the embodiment of ecological civilization era? What should we carry forward and insist on? Therefore, my speech topic now is ‘Milu Culture in the Era of Ecological Civilization’.

China has entered the fast track of building an ecological civilization. In the era of ecological civilization construction, a series of ecological civilization culture should be developed. Human civilization has gone through primitive civilization, agricultural civilization, and industrial civilization. Primitive civilization people worship totem, and gradually formed the primitive culture. The characteristics of each civilization are different. Now we are discussing the Milu culture in the ecological civilization era defined by the ecological civilization ideology. Of course, we should eliminate the disadvantages, promote the new, carry forward and inherit the culture, and more importantly, we should study President Ii Jinping’s ecological civilization ideology.

The earth has experienced five mass extinctions. Dinosaurs were extinct in the Cretaceous, and many people feel sorry them. However, dinosaurs have lived on Earth for tens of millions of years, and humans may not be able to achieve that long.

In a speech by President Xi Jinping, he mentioned that "industrial civilization cannot be sustained”, which means that industrial civilization has come to an end. We are experiencing the sixth mass extinction, so what will the sixth mass extinction bring to us? In the summary report of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015) of the Chinese Government, only one of the eight major tasks has not been accomplished, that is —— sub-item B of the seventh item on ensuring environmental sustainability: slowing down the rate of biodiversity loss. This is the only UN Millennium Development Goal that the Chinese government has not completed, which is exactly what we need to understand and face right now.

Why should we promote ecological civilization? The two major crises of industrial civilization: one is the biodiversity crisis and the other is the climate crisis, which has made industrial civilization unsustainable and made human habitat face loss. At present, our biggest goal is to protect human habitat.

In 1985, the ‘China Milu Deer Foundation’, co-sponsored by three Vice-Chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) at that time, Lu Zhengjiao, Qian Changzhao, and Bao Erhan, was mainly responsible for the protection of Milu and was responsible for the project of reintroducing Milu. In 1992, China became one of the signatories to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. At that time, experts believed that the reintroduction project of Milu had been successful, and the work of the foundation should be extended from single-species protection to the whole biodiversity protection. This will be very conducive to international integration, promote the development of biodiversity conservation in China and also strengthen international exchanges and cooperation. Therefore, we renamed as ‘China Biodiversity Conservation Foundation'. Its main working scope extends from the protection of single species to the protection of biodiversity as a whole, and then to the protection of human habitats. By 2012, the leaders of the foundation had discussed the climate, low carbon and environment issues again, and they renamed the organization again as ‘China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation'. The history of the foundation's renaming was changing in line with the requirements of the era of ecological civilization.

Ecological civilization is not only a world outlook and methodology but also President Xi Jinping's important contribution to Marxist Philosophy.

Primitive civilization mainly regards stone tools as the main tool; agricultural civilization uses iron tools; industrial civilization uses steam engine; then ecological civilization should include life science and digital technology. The corresponding culture of ecological civilization must be essential and changing. So, what should be the content of Milu culture under the culture of an ecological civilization? We conclude in six aspects:

1. Study Xi Jinping’s thought on ecological civilization.

2. Biodiversity Crisis and Civilization Change.

3. Enriching captivity and wild release, including the moral relationship between human beings and animals, especially with the captive animals.

Why should we protect pandas? Why should we protect Milu? Not to raise them to make money or to let children observe, this is not our purpose. The ultimate goal is to protect human habitat. Protecting Milu should let them return to the wild; a lot of wild fieldwork has been done, but we should also study genetics, population, disease, health and other issues of Milu; all these should be put into the wild ecosystem to study what role that Milu deer plays in the ecosystem. For instance, what is the role of African elephants in ecological culture? Elephants dump their excreta wherever they go, and there are many different seeds in their excreta. Therefore, they are the seeders of African grasslands and forests. Milu is a very important part of the wetland. It is also an important part of Milu culture to restore the unique wetland ecology of Milu, which is also the requirement of ecological civilization.

4. Let weeds grow and restore the natural ecology.

Many cultural and ecological projects in Beijing are anti-ecological civilization. Natural ecology should allow weeds to grow and Milu to return to nature. This is the embodiment of Milu culture and ecological civilization culture, as well as the requirement of President Xi Jinping for ‘clear water and green mountains’. We should not always embrace the idea of industrial civilization, such as the construction of a uniform artificial lawn. Many of today's ecological civilization construction, including Beijing in this regard, to truly implement the construction of ecological civilization, we must protect animals and their habitats by the requirements of ecological civilization.

5. The community of Shared Future for Mankind

After the return of Milu, including the ‘Community of shared future for mankind’, it is clear to all that if we did not have these Milu from Europe, our current Milu deer population and Milu civilization would be also unsustainable.

(Photo credit: CBCGDF)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9689.html

By / Xue Tongtong