The white paper on “China’s Biodiversity Conservation” points out that China has elevated biodiversity conservation to a national strategy, incorporated biodiversity conservation into medium- and long-term planning in various regions and fields, improved its policy and regulatory system, strengthened technical support and the construction of human resources teams, stepped-up law enforcement and supervision, guided the public to consciously participate in biodiversity conservation, and continuously improved its biodiversity governance capacity.

The White Paper underlines the role of biodiversity as the foundation, objective and means for China to achieve sustainable development. For instance, up to 10 percent of the new plant varieties identified worldwide in the past decade have been found in China. In the past ten years, the country has identified about 200 new varieties of plants per annum. China’s red line strategy has contributed to the conservation of key natural ecosystems, biological resources, and habitats for key species. China has established about 10,000 protected areas of various types, which account for about 18 percent of the country’s area. The protected area system has brought 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 71 percent of key state-protected wildlife species under effective protection. The country has contributed about 25 percent of global vegetation growth in the reporting period, the biggest share among all countries.

The White Paper also stated that China has over-fulfilled three of the Aichi targets – establishing terrestrial nature reserves, restoring and ensuring important ecosystem services, and increasing ecosystem resilience and carbon storage – and made progress in 13 targets, including mainstreaming biodiversity, sustainable management of agriculture, forestry and fishery, and sustainable production and consumption.