Efforts by civil society to protect land in China have been ongoing since the mid-1990s. Years of work and coordination by conservation practitioners and supporters came to fruition in 2011, when the first land trust in China – the 27,325-acre Laohegou Nature Reserve in Sichuan Province – was established. In 2017, 23 non-governmental organizations and foundations, including The Nature Conservancy China and the Paradise Foundation, launched the China Civic Land Conservation Alliance (CCLCA) in Beijing, aiming to protect 1% of China’s total land area through civic land conservation by 2030.
Today, NGOs and private individuals are a rising force for land conservation in China. As the country prepares to host the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (CBD COP 15) in 2021, the contribution of civic land conservation to achieving global land and biodiversity conservation targets is ever more relevant. Join the ILCN and leading practitioners from the field to learn more about civic protected areas (CPAs) in China. Speakers will offer an introduction to CPAs in China, present several case studies, and share progress and challenges in the run-up to the UN Biodiversity Conference.
Speakers will include Dr. Tong Jin, Science Director at The Nature Conservancy China Program; Fangyi Yang, Director of the Conservation Alliance at the Paradise International Foundation; and Dr. Kui Peng, Program Manager of the Biodiversity Conservation and Community Development Program at Global Environmental Institute.