By Lucas Guaraldo
IPAM (Amazon Environmental Research Institute) participated inthe “Ecological Civilization Flagship Knowledge Exchange Program,”an event organized by the China-World Bank Global Center for Ecological Systems and Transitions in Beijing, China. The initiative aims to bring together researchers and representatives from various countries to exchange experiences and establish cooperative partnerships on initiatives related to ecological restoration, sustainable agriculture, and pollution control.
“We were able to draft action plans and define concrete steps for international cooperation between countries and China, in addition to learning about some successful initiatives in terms of implementing nature-based solutions. We gained a more direct understanding of environmental and climate policies and the actions being implemented, both here and in the other countries that participated in the event,” explains Gabriela Savian, director of Public Policy at IPAM, who attended the meeting.
Event participants were also introduced to the Qiandao Lake restoration project, an artificial freshwater lake located in Zhejiang Province. Formed in the 1960s following the construction of a hydroelectric dam, the lake received, in 2018, a $150 million project funded by the World Bank, focusing on water management, water supply, and food production, directly benefiting 13 million residents of the Yangtze River Delta.
This activity is part of a series of initiatives in China that will include the participation of IPAM representatives. On September 13 and 14, André Guimarães, the institute’s executive director and special envoy for civil society at COP30, also attended the 2nd Brazil–China Symposium on Forests and Nature in Hangzhou to deepen cooperation between the two countries on issues such as forest protection, biodiversity, food security, sustainable agriculture, financing, and the implementation of public policies.
Insights from the Chinese Experience
In addition to the exchange of experiences, the event featured a presentation on Chinese environmental policies, which are guided by methods and strategies different from those adopted in other parts of the world. During the seminar, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences presented the concepts of “Two Mountains,” which prioritizes the valuation of environmental assets, and “Ecological Civilization,” which places environmental balance at the center of development projects. Both concepts are central to China’s environmental policies and five-year plans.
“In China, ecosystem restoration is not just ecological restoration, as we approach it in Brazil, but rather a restoration of the territorial context as a whole, including various factors related to the culture and development of a given area. We also visited a village to gain insight into governance and the process of benefit sharing based on incentives generated by ecosystem conservation,” explains Savian.
The World Bank has highlighted China’s efforts to restore degraded landscapes, invest in alternative energy, and promote sustainable food production. In August, the country’s solar energy generation capacity surpassed that of coal-fired power plants for the first time. At the same time, since 2000, reforestation and food production projects have restored 82 million hectares of forest, primarily in southwestern China.