BREATHTAKING BEAUTY: A brook flows through the cloud forests in the Jiaxi Nature Reserve in Hainan Province, which is at an altitude of more than 1,300 meters (XINHUA)

BEAUTIFUL COUPLE: A pair of damselflies linger on the leaves of plants in a forest in the Jiaxi Nature Reserve in Hainan Province (XINHUA)

Li Qiang (senior engineer with the China National Pulp and Paper Research Institute):

Biodiversity includes all the details of an ecosystem: plants, animals and microorganisms. These species mix together and form small ecosystems which may seem the same but are different in many ways. So biodiversity is formed. Meanwhile, because of species' co-evolution, many variables will appear when they produce offspring, thus forming genetic diversity.

As a member of Friends of Nature, an environmental protection NGO, I have observed birds for more than 10 years. Every week, the members of the organization observe birds in the Temple of Heaven and the Old Summer Palace in Beijing. We also go to the Songshan National Nature Reserve in Beijing, the Dongzhai Nature Reserve in Henan Province, the Dongying Yellow River Delta in Shandong Province and the East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve in Hunan Province. With birds channelling us to nature, we gradually came to understand the significance of nature conservation and biodiversity protection.

Everyone can experience the beauty of biodiversity if they do two things. One is observing nature around you: the place where you live or work and every piece of land you walk. They all present the beauty of nature. The second is observing nature continuously. You cannot know about sparrows, the most common resident birds, from only one or two glimpses. And you cannot know the secret of viola philippica, a plant of early spring, without eight or 10 years' observation.

PROTECTING FORESTS: Working staff of the Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in Yunnan Province measure and record the growth condition of a Chinese banyan tree in the tropical rain forest there (XINHUA)

The current extensive crisis over biodiversity protection is, to a large degree, a result of a paucity of people's knowledge about nature. Because of ignorance, people harm nature without feeling anything; due to the ignorance, people do not know what to do about species destruction incidents. Also, the legal system lacks a positive response in biodiversity protection.

To make more people understand the significance of biodiversity, the simplest way is to encourage them to observe birds, to learn about plants, to enjoy the sea and to climb the mountains. Enjoy the beauty of nature, and then you can feel the pain of nature.

Li Zhenji (professor at the School of Life Sciences of Xiamen University):

The Global Biodiversity Outlook (GBO), issued on May 10, 2010, by the UN Environment Program and the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) concluded: The world did not realize biodiversity protection targets set in 2002, which means the world failed to effectively slow down the loss rate of biodiversity by 2010.