Peter Thomson: China’s approach to ecological civilization is very inspiring
"I have visited Xiamen, East China's Fujian province many times. The scenery is enchanting. It seems to me that Xiamen is a garden city pursuing the harmonious coexistence between humankind and the sea," Peter Thomson, the United Nations Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean, told People's Daily in an exclusive interview.
Thomson said the coastal city has been actively participating in international marine cooperation. In his eyes, the World Ocean Week in Xiamen, which is held in Xiamen every November since 2007, is an important complement to the international ocean conference as an influential platform for ocean action.
Since the 1990s, Xiamen has implemented mangrove protection and restoration projects and adopted scientific approaches to coastal management.
In 2018 when Thomson first visited Xiamen, he went to see the Xiatanwei Mangrove Park, which was still in the early stages of development. Later in his speeches around the world, he lauded it as a model for mangrove restoration.
In November 2023 when he attended the World Ocean Week in Xiamen, he revisited the park. He highly commended the balance achieved by Xiamen between ecological protection and economic development, saying he looked forward to Xiamen providing a model for international marine ecological governance.
The ocean is one of the main repositories of the world's biodiversity, constituting over 90 per cent of the habitable space on the planet. "We humankind should show the ocean the respect it deserves," said Thomson.
"China has actively promoted the development of ocean science and its approach to ecological civilization was very inspiring. I was deeply impressed by China's contribution to the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development (2021-2030)(the Ocean Decade)," he added.
In December 2022,the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework was adopted at the United Nations' Biodiversity Summit of COP15 (the 15th Conference of the Parties of the Convention for the Conservation of Biodiversity), laying out a new blueprint for global biodiversity governance through 2030.
Thomson spoke highly of China's positive role in promoting the framework's implementation. He believed that China will also play an important part in reducing marine plastic pollution.