Abstract:

The 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward for the first time a new requirement that China should spearhead the construction of ecological civilization on global scale, of which biodiversity protection is an integral part. This paper systematically summarizes the major international experiences in promoting the Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity (GPBB) advocated by the Convention on Biological Diversity, and gives policy proposals for China to promote the GPBB (or China Business and Biodiversity Partnership, CBBP). By analyzing GPBB practices in Germany, India, Canada, Peru, Australia, South Africa, Japan and South Korea, we find the main experience of these countries as follows: (1) the governments have important and varied roles, including management and providing funds or goods; (2) the patterns of organization are diverse, but usually they set up cross department decision-making bodies and secretarial offices; (3) membership generally requires signing agreements; some agreements focus on specific industries, some accord importance to institutional members; (4) the government generally provides legal and policy interpretation, knowledge and information dissemination, policy guidance and other services; (5) regarding funding, some mainly rely on the collection of membership dues while others rely on donations in kind or voluntary service, and some rely on PPP projects. We also draw the following conclusions: (1) a large number of enterprises are motivated and willing to participate in the Biodiversity Partnership Initiative; (2) the international resource network for promoting enterprise participation has been established; (3) limited by scale and capital, the participation of the vast enterprises requires more guidance and support of government. In 2015, China formally joined the GPBB. Although China has carried out several related activities to promote the GPBB, it still faces many challenges. First of all, the relevant documents have not been approved. Therefore, although many enterprises are willing to partner with China, there is a need to establish rules to follow. Secondly, China has not yet established a sound organizational mode and financial mechanism to promote GPBB. Finally, the 15th conference of the parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will be held in Beijing in 2020, which creates an urgent need to manage China’s partnership for business and biodiversity. In this regard, this paper suggests that the China Business and Biodiversity Partnership (CBBP) initiative should implement the two step strategy: (1) establish and launch the CBBP alliance initiative, and (2) increase the support of international conventions and state performance negotiations.

Key words: biodiversity, international experience, global partnership, Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), business participation