Forums > Living in Kunming > COP15 starting in about 40 days The second phase of the United Nations' negotiations on the world's new biodiversity conservation goals through 2030, known as COP15, has been relocated from Kunming, Yunnan province, to the Canadian city of Montreal, between Dec 5 and 17, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
The decision was reached following consultation among the Chinese and Canadian governments and the secretariat of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, a media release from the ministry said on Tuesday. The secretariat is based in Montreal.
With the COVID-19 pandemic control situations at home and abroad fully considered, the arrangement was made to "accelerate the global biodiversity conservation process", it said.
"China will continue to work as the presidency of the COP15," it said, adding that the theme of the gathering and its logo will remain unchanged.
The Chinese government has always attached great importance to biodiversity conservation, the statement said. With consistent efforts to play its role as the host of COP15, China, together with other parties, will endeavor to see an ambitious and realistic post-2020 global biodiversity framework reached at the meeting.
Dimitri de Boer, chief China representative of environmental law organization ClientEarth, said a lot of negotiations need to be carried out at the conference and the relocation helps address the uncertainties about the second phase of COP15. "This is very practical," he added.
As the largest UN biodiversity gathering in a decade, COP15 was originally scheduled to be held in Kunming, capital of Yunnan, in October 2020.
With the theme "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth", it is tasked with elaborating on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and identifying protection goals through 2030.
Ecological civilization is a concept promoted by President Xi Jinping for balanced and sustainable development featuring the harmonious coexistence of man and nature.
After being postponed to May 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was rescheduled in August to be held in two phases, first in October 2021 and then in the first half of this year.
The first phase was successfully held in Kunming from Oct 11 to 15, which included the opening ceremony, leaders' speeches and the issuing of the Kunming Declaration. Overseas personnel attended the meeting online.
Via video link at the conference, Xi announced China's initiative to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to support biodiversity protection in developing countries.
China took the lead in investing 1.5 billion yuan ($224 million), and called for contributions from other parties to the fund.
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Yunnan county cooks the books for $850 million
Posted byMan bites dog is news. Dog bites man is not news.
Books are cooked is no news. Books are not cooked is news.
Landslide closes Tiger Leaping Gorge to traffic
Posted byThis is the parking place of the Tiger Leaping Gorge. Looks like it happened at night because during the day this parking is full of cars and busses. The road is on the left of the picture and must be closed off as well. Clearing this will take some time because one cannot push the debris just over the edge because there is the Tiger Leaping Gorge itself. Might be nice to have a second big stone laying in the middle of the stream but that rock is bit too large to move in one piece.
As usual in reports in the local press the numbers are wrong. The big rock in the middle alone is 30 cubic meters (compared to the buildings in the back). The debris must be chopped up and even blasted to smaller pieces and then carted off. Pity that these horrible plaster murals on the hillside have not been destroyed.
Recipe: Yunnan-style sweet and sour ribs
Posted byCilantro = Coriander
US non-profit Sanford Health eyes Kunming
Posted byInteresting aricle in HealthlandTime.
healthland.time.com/[...]
Gives a good idea about what non-profit means in the USA.
Snapshot: Lugu Lake
Posted byI don't know when you went to Luguhu but the road between Lijiang and Lugu has improved enormously over the last few years and the new road between Lugu lake and Ninglang has been completed and is now one of the best roads in Yunnan. From there the road is the old road to Lijiang and a bit congested at certain spots. Indeed just outside Lijiang the road is a total mess because of road-works. The old road is completely destroyed by heavy trucks here going between the cement works and Lijiang (A common problem in China; modern trucks can carry more load then the road have been designed and build for and therefore destroy the roads).
I travelled this road earlier this month and it took me 5 hours to cover the Lugu Lake / Lijiang distance. Once the road works have been completed it might take 4 hours. That is half the time it took me in 2009.
Travelling from Xichang in Sichuan still takes a full day and from Chengdu I would do it in two days. (Many road improvement works here as well.).
Your statement that "the Sichuan side was much less developed than the opposite shore" I cannot agree with. On the contrary: Apart from Luoshui (The only village at the lake) the Yunnan side has hardly been touched by tourism while the Sichuan side has seen rapid touristic development.
One of the nice things of Lugu lake is/was that it is less over-run by tourists. Something that spoiled it for me in Lijiang and Shangri-La. A new airport will hasten the process of it becoming one more of the "shopping mall" tourist towns like Lijiang. Already now I noticed that more and more local business women (The local Mosuo culture is matrilineal and this mend that most shops, restaurants and hotels were owned and run by women) have been replaced by outsiders (Mostly Sichuan businessmen) and that part of the atmosphere has gone.
Note as well that the area has an access fee of 80 RMB per person.