Ladies and gentlemen, friends from the media,

Good morning!

The month of May brings Beijing with bright sunshine and flowers in full blossom. Today, we are so delighted to have honorable guests both at home and aboard gathering here to solemnly commemorating the 2007 International Day for Biological Diversity. I'd like to express my warm welcome and heartfelt greetings to all participants of the meeting on behalf of State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).

The theme of this year's International Day for Biological Diversity is "biodiversity and climate change". As it is known to all, biodiversity is closely linked with climate change. On the one hand, climate change will lead to the degradation and shrinkage of biological habitats and hence change the distribution of species; while on the other hand, the reduction of biodiversity will in turn affect regional climate change. At present, global warming has already become an undeniable fact. The selection of the theme of "biodiversity and climate change" is just to arouse the attention of the general public to the relations of the two so as to step up the conservation of biodiversity and lower the risk and damage brought about by climate change.

China is one of the countries boasting the richest biodiversity and also one of the earliest adopting the Convention on Biological Diversity. The Chinese Government has highly valued the work of biodiversity conservation by formulating and enforcing a series of related laws and regulations with basic legal system on the conservation and biodiversity in place. In addition, it has established and consolidated the coordination mechanism on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity as well as the scheme of Inter-ministerial Joint Meeting on biological species resources, laid down and issued the National Action Plan on the Conservation of Biodiversity of China and other related plan in this regard, based on which various sectors have mapped out and executed their own action plan. For example, the Ministry of Agriculture has carried out the development of seven major systems including the one on the protection of agriculture-related animals and plants and the one on the protection of agricultural resource and the ecology. The State Forestry Administration has launched six major programs including the protection of natural forests and the grain for green, etc. It's also noteworthy that China has began to take into account the factor of climate change and biodiversity in related planning and policy formulation to prevent the impact on climate and biodiversity caused by overuse of resources and land.

In short, the biodiversity in China has been under effective conservation, and the deteriorating trend of ecological environment has been effectively curbed with the adoption of various measures including the formulation of laws, regulations and planning, the implementation of biodiversity conservation on the spot and habitat resettlement as well as related scientific researches and publicity activities. Take nature reserves as an example, by the end of 2006, a total number of 2,395 various nature reserves had been set up across China at different levels, taking up around 15% of China's overall land territory. In doing so, a nationwide network of nature reserves featuring relatively diversified types, rational distribution and sound functions has taken shape. These nature reserves have ensured efficient protection of 75% of the terrestrial eco-systems, 88% of all the wild animals and 65% of higher plant species and most of the rare and endangered wild fauna and flora species.

Great achievements as we have obtained in the work of biodiversity conservation in China, we are sober-minded that the overall situation still remains grave. Population increase and rapid economic growth are posing aggravating threat to the biodiversity of China. The environmental protection undertaking of China is now facing an important opportunity of historic transformation by entering into a new phase that highlights economic development optimized by environmental protection. We must grasp this historic opportunity in the work of biodiversity conservation to further our understanding of the rules governing the conservation of biodiversity, materialize the request of the historic transformation on environmental protection into specific policies and measures and promote the realization of the target set for biodiversity conservation in 2010. In specific, the following four aspects should be especially underscored in the work of biodiversity conservation based on the innovation in management concepts and instruments and the upgrade of unified supervision of biodiversity conservation:

1. Incorporating biodiversity conservation into social and economic development framework

The Guidelines of the 11th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of China spells out the importance of regulating national land and space development order and gradual establishment of four major functional areas: i.e. optimized development area, key development area, restricted development area and area prohibition for development, among which the carrier for the latter two is eco-functional areas and nature reserves. China is presently the home to 17 key areas of key significance for the conservation of biodiversity internationally, which are mostly located inside the functional areas for restricted development and prohibition for development. By strengthening the construction work of eco-functional areas and nature reserves, we will integrate biodiversity conservation into local social and economic development framework, regard biodiversity conservation as a crucial factor to the perfection of regional policy and performance assessment, ban those projects that pollute or damage the environment in the construction process according to law, include impact on biodiversity as an important element in the implementation of EIA to other construction projects and carry out corresponding protection measures, further enhance governmental input in the work of biodiversity conservation and set up and improve eco-compensation mechanism in these areas on a preferential basis. During the process for the establishment of ecological province, city and county, biodiversity conservation should be treated as a key performance checkup indicator, and the work of biodiversity conservation should be reinforced both in urban and rural areas to properly handle the relations between economic growth and biodiversity conservation.

2. Strengthening national capacity building in biodiversity conservation

In 1994, China enacted the China Biodiversity Conservation Action Plan (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan) with relatively sound results. As time went by, the social, economic and environmental situation of China underwent substantial change, thus requiring the data and information concerning eco-system, species and genetic resources in the original Action Plan to be updated and reevaluated and the optimized actions and items to be adjusted accordingly. For the moment, we have kicked off the revision work of the Action Plan under joint efforts with the members of the China Implementation Work Coordination Group of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The new China Biodiversity Conservation Strategy and Actions will underline the mid and long-term strategic goals and tasks for biodiversity conservation and identify prioritized actions and projects. Meanwhile, it also highlights the national capacity building in biodiversity conservation. With the improvement of the three systems, namely legal system, technical support system and management system, we will improve the four types of capacity. They are organization and coordination capacity, policy research capacity, administration and law enforcement capacity as well as the capacity in international exchange. In view of the weak links in biodiversity conservation, we will continuously improve the legal system on biodiversity conservation and the strengthen related law enforcement; intensifying the early-warning supervision and establishing well-developed biodiversity monitoring system by capital investment; intensify scientific research and fully support the research and development of key technologies on biodiversity conservation; and  incorporate biodiversity conservation into the economic development plans of government at all levels in an effort to raise the overall national level of biodiversity conservation.

3. Furthering international cooperation and exchanges

As a developing country, China needs to enhance international cooperation to learn from other countries of their top-notch concepts, experience and technologies. At the same time, China is also willing to jointly promote the realization of the biodiversity conservation goals set for 2010 based on international cooperation and exchange to exert its constructive role of a big and responsible nation. In recently years, China has conducted close and extensive cooperation with many counties in the realm of environmental protection, especially in biodiversity conservation. The biodiversity program between China and the EU is just one of them. The EU-China Biodiversity Program has ushered in a number of activities and gained some milestone achievements centered on the key points in the biodiversity sector of China ever since its formal inception on May 22 last year. Today we will hold the signing ceremony for the local demonstration projects of the EU-China Biodiversity Program, which marks that the program enters into substantial implementation stage. With the ever-deepening of our work, I believe, the EU-China Biodiversity Program will definitely play an increasingly bigger role in the biodiversity conservation work of China.

4. Enhancing extensive public participation

Biodiversity has a close connection with people's daily life. So far, many volunteers have made outstanding contributions to the work of biodiversity conservation. In this regard, the government should offer active support and advocating efforts to exert the function of volunteers and NGOs to the best possible level. The conservation of biodiversity can never thrive without public participation. Since youth is the fresh and active force in biodiversity conservation, SEPA, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Youth League and the Ministry of Education will jointly initiate the activity of Calling Up the Programs of Public Activities for Biodiversity Conservation, which is to target the youngsters in communities and rural areas. The aim of the activity is to enable more people realize the importance of biodiversity and climate change for the survival of human beings and understand that biodiversity is a kind of crucial resource and is vital guarantee to international biological safety. To this end, I hope that everyone of us start from now, start from ourselves and start from every thing we do, to participate in the move of biodiversity conservation and the prevention of climate change in a bid to protect the biodiversity that supports our life and beautifies our environment.

Ladies and gentlemen, biodiversity is the basis that human being subsists upon and the cornerstone of national ecological safety, and the conservation of biodiversity demands the participation and dedication of every person. Let us seize this opportunity and join hands and make concerted efforts for the bright future of biodiversity conservation. Last but not the least, I wish the every success of the activity of Calling Up the Programs of Public Activities for Biodiversity Conservation and the smooth implementation and remarkable achievements of the EU-China Biodiversity Program.

Thank you.