Economic development, eco-protection not incompatible: Chinese minister

MONTREAL, Canada, Dec. 7 (Xinhua) -- China's practices and achievements in biodiversity conservation showed that economic development and ecological protection are not mutually exclusive as man and nature are a community of shared destiny, a Chinese minister said here Wednesday during a UN biodiversity conference.

Huang Runqiu, China's ecology and environment minister and also president of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, made the remarks as the China Pavilion of the second phase of COP15 opened here on Wednesday.

The China Pavilion will host 26 side events with different themes on Dec. 7-18.

In his speech at the first side event, Huang said the efforts made here are to further consolidate the global consensus on biodiversity conservation and help to reach the "post-2020 global biodiversity framework," the main task of the second phase of COP15, scheduled for Dec. 7-19 in Montreal, Canada.

China has effectively protected 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of key state-protected wildlife populations, Huang said.

China's newly increased forest area ranks first in the world, and more than 300 rare and endangered wildlife populations have been well restored, he added.

Six cases on such topics as farming, traditional Chinese medicine, sustainable restoration of land and protection of aquatic biological resources and mangroves across China were shared at the first side event.

The first phase of COP15 was held last year in Kunming, China, during which the Kunming Declaration was adopted and hailed as a significant milestone achievement.

The post-2020 global biodiversity framework is widely expected to be passed during the ongoing second phase. ■