Qian Lei, director general of Roots & Shoots Beijing, an NGO focusing on environment and biodiversity protection (YIN KANG) 

In 1991, 12 Tanzanian high school students came to British zoologist Jane Goodall for help as the latter had been researching chimpanzees in the region for nearly 30 years at that point. They told the scientist that their community had been damaged by illegal wildlife trade and they were hoping she could lend a helping hand in finding a solution to tackle the root causes. 

Goodall suggested they team up with their peers at school, conduct field research and find solutions, a recommendation which eventually resulted in the very first Roots & Shoots unit. This action was a true testimony to the power of youth. Later, Goodall went on to officially establish Roots & Shoots, an NGO on environment and biodiversity protection. Today, it has roots in over 50 countries to encourage youngsters to create a better future for man, animal and environment.   

“Problems relating to biodiversity and environmental protection cannot be solved within the timespan of one generation. More young people need to get involved,” Qian Lei, Director General of Roots & Shoots Beijing, told Beijing Review. 

Young people’s actions, including changes in their environmental awareness, may influence their entire families and consequently encourage more adults to protect biodiversity. “If we educate young people during their teenage years to make them more environmentally aware, they may pay more attention to these issues in the future,” she said. 

She hopes that following the first phase of the COP15, more people will support environmental education among the young generation, especially children living in China’s central, western regions and natural reserves.  Youngsters there have less opportunities to obtain the resources of environmental education, but their hometown do see more conflicts between man and nature because the competing needs of conserving biodiversity and improving people’s livelihoods are both urgent, she explained. 

On October 12, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China has officially designated its first group of national parks, including the Sanjiangyuan National Park, the Giant Panda National Park, the Northeast China Tiger and Leopard National Park, the Hainan Tropical Forests National Park, and the Wuyishan National Park. The protected land area covers 230,000 square kilometers and nearly 30 percent of the key terrestrial wildlife species found in China. 

Qian has visited the Sanjiangyuan National Park frequently over the past two years and found that the local government is genuinely concerned about biodiversity conservation. They have rolled out measures such as putting a halt to grazing as to restore the grasslands and developing ecotourism to improve residential income, she added.  

She hopes that the plans and actions released by the COP15 can be instructive for all environmental protection organizations to better work together in conserving biodiversity. “I hope more people can join us to influence younger generations in this regard,” she concluded. 

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon   

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