China Pledges 1.5bn Yuan For Biodiversity Fund

China on Tuesday pledged 1.5 billion yuan (US$233 million) to establish a fund to protect biodiversity in developing countries.

President Xi Jinping, addressing the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity via video link in Beijing, called on other countries to contribute to the Kunming Biodiversity Fund.

The fund will be used to support developing countries in biodiversity protection, Xi said.

The weeklong meeting marks the formal start of a new round of global talks on protecting the world's plants and animals from extinction.

A second and final session that will try to agree on targets for the next 10 years is scheduled to be held in Kunming from April 25 to May 8 next year.

The world has failed to reach most of the current 10-year goals, the Aichi Biodiversity Targets set in Japan in 2010.

Greenpeace said countries need to focus on not just setting new targets but also meeting them.

“The Kunming Biodiversity Fund launched today should jump start an urgently needed conversation on biodiversity finance,” it said in a statement.

One 2010 goal was achieved: About one-sixth of the planet’s land and freshwater area now lies within protected or conservation areas, according to a UN report released in May.

Xi said that China is speeding up the building of a natural conservation system with a new national park system as its core. (Xinhua, AP)