Shenzhen attaches great importance to biodiversity conservation, and its advanced concepts, delicacy management, and experience in rapid linkage disposal will be helpful to promote biodiversity conservation at the upcoming 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) which will be held in Kunming in October.
Shenzhen consists of about 64 percent of terrestrial ecosystems and about 36 percent of marine ecosystems.
Shenzhen plans to improve the quality of forest ecosystems and innovate nature education programs to carry out ecological culture education activities to strengthen conservation of biodiversity and provide a foundation and resources for the development of biodiversity.
“Shenzhen Blue” has become a shining card which represents the beautiful sky in Shenzhen. Such beautiful sky appears because of the improvement of air quality. There are 1,206 parks in Shenzhen and they are key to improving air quality. In the first half of this year, the air quality composite index of Shenzhen ranked sixth among 168 key Chinese cities.
With such beautiful skies, flying birds are also an attraction. In migrantion seasons, hundreds of thousands of migrant birds of up to 189 species take their rest in Shenzhen. Discovered species of birds in Shenzhen includes a quarter of discovered species in China. As the second largest habitat of black-faced spoonbills, 361 black-faced spoonbills were recorded in Shenzhen Bay in 2020.
Migrant birdsroost in the Overseas China Town (OCT) Wetland. It is a key part of the Shenzhen Bay wetland ecosystem and an important station on international flyways. The OCT Wetland records more than 10,000 visits of birds per year and a total of 171 species are recorded so far. The OCT Wetland Nature School is the first nature school in China. In April 2021, OCT Wetland Park opened as the first national wetland park in Shenzhen.
Residents in Shenzhen have strong awareness of ecological conservation, and actively participate in voluntary services to protect the ecological environment. As the “volunteers city,” there are 33,000 registered environmental volunteers and 141 environmental organizations in Shenzhen. In 2014, the first non-governmental organization which focused on coral conversation, the Dapeng Coral Conversation Voluntary Union, was founded. It started the marine public conservation programs of subsea operations and community interaction.
For sustainable development, Shenzhen keeps the development of economy and the construction of ecological culture at the same speed, integrating a low-carbon style into the city plan. In October 2021, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD COP15) will be held in Kunming, Yunnan. At that time, Shenzhen will present its model of balance between efficient economic development and ecological conversation.