SCO biodiversity cooperation and China's contribution

Under mounting pressures from climate change and habitat fragmentation, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states have progressively incorporated regional ecological security into their cooperation agenda through cross-border reserves, scientific collaboration and capacity building.

China has provided sustained support in financing, technology and training, helping several key conservation projects move from planning to sustained implementation.

China-Russia cross-border conservation in the northeast exemplifies an institutional and scientific pairing.

In recent years, Beijing and Moscow have advanced cooperation centered on joint laboratories, reinforced anti-poaching and monitoring systems, and restoration of connectivity corridors to rehabilitate habitats and population dynamics of large carnivores such as Siberian tigers and Amur leopards.

Latest actions include a Sino-Russian tiger and leopard research platform in the northeastern forests that strengthens genetic monitoring, camera-trap patrols and cross-border data sharing, making transboundary species management more scientific and routine.

China-Tajikistan cooperation on glacier protection and high-mountain ecology has entered a new phase.

Through joint field missions and conferences in recent years, the partners have accelerated the creation of a glacier monitoring network, the sharing of satellite and in-situ observations, and planed to establish a jointly equipped laboratory in Dushanbe for long-term monitoring and basin risk assessment.

These measures aim to quantify glacier retreat, assess impacts on watershed water resources and ecosystem services, and provide scientific bases for adaptation strategies across upstream and downstream countries.

China has supported contiguous ecological protection in the Tianshan Mountains through its cooperation with Kyrgyzstan. Recent developments include Kyrgyzstan's announcement of large-scale ecological corridor plans and technical alignment with international bodies.

China has provided technical assistance in species monitoring, community co-management and capacity building, helping to reconnect habitats for snow leopards, raptors and alpine vegetation and yielding early conservation gains. These projects stress rigorous monitoring and livelihood integration, using project-based management to enhance sustainability.

By mutual recognition of projects and joint capacity building, SCO can translate regional experience into replicable practice and contribute a regional blueprint to global biodiversity governance.

For more:

SCO climate cooperation and regional low-carbon practice

(Cover: A Siberian tiger is seen at the Primorsky safari park in Russia, January 8, 2022. /VCG)