China launches new biodiversity protection fund
FILE PHOTO: A giant panda rests on a tree “panda kindergarten”, a refuge for baby pandas, inside Bifengxia giant panda base in Ya’an, Sichuan province April 26, 2013. REUTERS/Stringer
KUNMING, China — Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday the launch of a 1.5 billion yuan ($232.47 million) fund to support biodiversity protection efforts in developing countries.
He welcomed other parties’ contributions to the Kunming Biodiversity Fund.
Xi was addressing virtually the COP15 global biodiversity summit in Kunming, China, where talks on a new global conservation treaty got underway.
On Monday, United Nations biodiversity chief Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said the world has now reached “a moment of truth” when it comes to protecting its vital ecosystems.
Mrema, executive secretary of the U.N. Convention on Biological Protection, said during the opening ceremony of the talks that the world had not achieved the necessary breakthroughs from 2011-2020 and was not yet able to safeguard ecosystems that were key to human wellbeing.
* ($1 = 6.4525 Chinese yuan)
