On October 9th, the 2021 Erhai Forum on Global Ecological Civilization Construction (Erhai Forum in short) was held in Dali city in Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan province.
The forum was composed of a main forum and four branch forum and was an important supporting event of the COP15. More than 300 online and offline participators from home and abroad shared ideas and experience centered on the theme of “building an ecological civilization, together for a beautiful planet” as well as on the solution of coping with problems and challenges of the global ecological civilization construction.
The forum saw the consensus that global environmental governance had been facing new challenges and hardship in recent years. Chinese government brought up the idea that “lash mountains and lucid water are valuable treasure”, representing Chinese wisdom to joint plan for global ecological civilization construction as well as profound thinking to develop human civilization and build a clean and beautiful world. In the past few years, the local government of Yunnan had been following Xi Jinping’s thoughts on ecological civilization and the spirit of his speech delivered during his inspection in Yunnan province. Relating departments must remember that the core of the “leading constructors of the ecological civilization” was protection, so as to push forward the construction of ecological civilization in all aspects. In the province, green development was improved; the protection of biodiversity had significant achievement; the quality of ecological achievement had been upgraded and ecological culture was more abundant and colorful. Cangshan Mountain with better plantation and Erhai Lake with more lucid water were epitome of the construction of the ecological civilization in Yunnan.
It’s said in the forum that in the construction of the global ecological civilization, every party needed to focus on common concerns and give rational suggestions; to build a communication platform and promote knowledge-sharing to contribute to a clean and beautiful world as well as to promote multilateralism and international cooperation to plan and gather effort for a good future for all human. Currently, China’s ecological civilization construction had entered a fast-developing path; started international exchanges and talked about ideas, progress and achievement of Chinese civilization construction, so as to offer experience for the global ecological governance and sustainable development as well as to inject vitality into the global ecological civilization construction.
Attendees from the international society held that ecological civilization construction related to human’s future and building a green homeland was a common dream for people from all countries. They gave high comment to the achievements of the construction of China’s ecological civilization, believing that China had significant progress in the use of renewable energy and pollution treatment and prevention and had been playing an important role in the reduction of carbon emission and the protection of biodiversity. They advocated that countries in the world needed to launch multilateral cooperation, to cope with challenges of ecological protection by working together and to plan for the blueprint of future governance of the global biodiversity with opportunities of the COP15.
During the forum, practical experience to protect the beautiful homeland on earth was shared by heads of Chinese Communications Construction Company, Saihanba Mechanized Forest Farm of Hebei and the government of Dali Bai Autonomous prefecture. Ideas were exchanged by experts from China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, ASEAN-China Center, South-Africa Global Dialogue Research Institute, Ministry of Ecological Environment, Shandong University and other institutes. Other events were also held in the forum, including the establishment of “Keywords to Understand Ecological Civilization”, the plate-revealing ceremony of “Erhai Forum” and the establishment of the global photo plan of “the world is more beautiful because of you”.
Online and offline attendees included Wan Gang, vice chairman of the CPPCC and chairman of China Association for Science and Technology, Du Zhanyuan, director of China Foreign Languages Publishing Administration, Guo Weimin, chairman of the China Public Relations Association and former deputy director of the information office of China’s State Council, Wang Linggui, vice president of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Zhao Jin, member of the standing committee of the provincial committee and publicity minister of the provincial party committee, Qiu Jiang, vice governor, Leslie Maasdorp, vice president of the New Development Bank, Elia G. Kaiyamo, Namibian ambassador to China, Joao S. Santos Neto, Angola’s ambassador to China, and so on.
Officials participating in the event were from Serbia Embassy in China, Sudan Embassy in China, Samoa Embassy in China, Consulate General of Cambodia in Kunming, Consulate General of Laos in Kunming, Consulate General of Malaysia in Kunming, Consulate General of Myanmar in Kunming, Consulate General of Thailand in Kunming and Consulate General of Vietnam in Kunming.