China biodiversity and conservation virtual seminar

On Wed 12 October, from 12:00 to 13:00, the China Forum at Jesus College is hosting a virtual seminar entitled 'China biodiversity and conservation: status, challenges and opportunities' that will no doubt be of interest to a number of UCCRI members. Please find the details below:

Dear students and colleagues in the Conservation Research Institute

We are pleased to invite you to a virtual seminar which will be given by Professor Zhiyun Ouyang, Professor and Director of the Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences.  The virtual lecture, followed by Q&A, will take place from 12:00 - 13:30 (UK time) on Wednesday 12 October and forms part of the seminar series at the China Forum, Jesus College.  

China biodiversity and conservation: status, challenges and opportunities 

China is one of the mega-countries in biodiversity in the world. China preserves almost all types of ecosystems, including forests, grassland, wetlands, desert, tundra, and coral reef, where 43,000 species of vascular plants, and more than 7,000 species of vertebrate live. Like other areas of the world, biodiversity in China is threatened by land use change, extensive logging, harvesting or hunting, habitat fragmentation and climate change. Thousands of plants and wildlife were endangered. Since the 1950s, China has set up more than 12,000 sites of protected areas, but these protected areas are not well delineated to protect either biodiversity or key ecosystem services. To protect biodiversity and secure the provision of ecosystem services, China has launched a systematic approach to mainstream biodiversity and ecosystem services, including re-building PAs systems, a natural forest protection program, and a cropland return to forest /grassland /wetland program.  

Dr Zhiyun Ouyang is the director and professor of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the President of the Ecological Society of China, and international member of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.  

Dr Zhiyun Ouyang is an ecologist recognised for his work on biodiversity, ecosystem services, and natural capital, and for advancing pioneering, science-based policies for sustainable development. He led the National Ecosystem Assessment and Ecosystem Services Mapping in China, identifying the critical regions for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services at the national scale. His work has underpinned innovation in China’s ecological protection policies, including key ecological function conservation areas (EFCAs) of the country; ecological protection red line planning; and new systems of national parks. His work is a key basis for investments in improving both natural capital and human well-being, such as through ecological financial transfer payments (ETPs), which have benefited hundreds of millions of rural people living in ecologically important areas. He has pioneered a new metric, Gross Ecosystem Product (GEP), to evaluate nature’s contributions to people, and to track the performance of policies designed to secure people and nature. GEP is now widely used in China, has been adopted as an accounting indicator for valuation of ecosystem asset and services by the United Nations Statistical Commission.  

We warmly invite you to join us for this virtual seminar.  If you wish to attend please email the China Forum Administrator, Denise Hayles (china-forum@jesus.cam.ac.uk) and she will be pleased to book a place for you and send you the Zoom joining instructions nearer the time.