Abstract:

Aims: The construction of a scientific and reasonable biodiversity conservation standard system plays an important role in improving the science of biodiversity conservation, enhancing the management effectiveness of management institutions and promoting the standardization of biodiversity conservation. In recent years, the documents “Opinions on Further Strengthening Biodiversity Conservation” and “National Standardization Development Outline” issued by the General Office of CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China have all put forward relevant requirements for the construction of biodiversity standard system. Thus, the construction of biodiversity conservation standard system has become an important part of biodiversity conservation work in China at present and in the future. However, current biodiversity conservation standard system in China is not perfect and can not meet the realistic needs of biodiversity conservation work. This study aims to analyze the current situation and issues of China’s biodiversity conservation standard system and propose the ideas and countermeasures for constructing biodiversity standard system to promote the standardization of biodiversity conservation in China.

Methods: Based on the three objectives of “conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and equitable and reasonable sharing of benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources” established by the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), we used the existing effective national and industrial standards as the basis for research, and focused on ecosystems, species and genes at three different levels. The list of existing biodiversity conservation standards was retrieved using relevant keywords. The list of existing biodiversity conservation standards was searched by using relevant key words to form a list of standards, and the organized list of standards was used to conduct an in-depth study on the biodiversity conservation standards system in China.

Results & Recommendations: We analyzed the research object (containing a total of 1,032 standards) and found that the current status of China’s biodiversity conservation standard system is mainly managed by industry, basically covering each major task and multiple categories, but there are still problems of lack of systematization and completeness among standards, low quality and low utilization of standard specifications, and insufficient articulation with international standards. Considering the issues of the existing biodiversity conservation standard system and focusing on the main tasks and responsibilities of biodiversity conservation, we proposed the idea of constructing a three-dimensional structural framework (containing three dimensions of industry, task and category) of China’s biodiversity standard system. Finally, we put forward relevant suggestions in four aspects: (1) preparing for the establishment of a national technical committee for biodiversity conservation standardization; (2) timely development of standard production and revision; (3) strengthening scientific and technological support, and (4) promoting the alignment of China’s standards with international standards, in order to provide reference for the construction of a more advanced and applicable standard system for biodiversity conservation.

Key words: biodiversity conservation, standard system, scope definition, frame, dimension