On October 27, during the sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP16) held in Cali, Colombia, Guilin City was announced as a participant in the “Nature Cities” platform.
The “Nature Cities” platform is an online interactive platform established under a collaborative initiative framework promoted by various organizations, including the Eco-city Local Sustainable Development Association, the International Union for Conservation of Nature, The Nature Conservancy, the World Wildlife Fund, and the United Nations Environment Program. It serves as the world’s largest platform for sharing knowledge and case studies on urban and local biodiversity conservation, providing rich guides, tools, and case studies to help cities reassess their relationship with nature, achieving mutual coexistence and prosperity.
During the COP15 in 2022, six Chinese cities—Kunming, Chengdu, Huzhou, Nanyang, Jiaxing, and Shenzhen—were the first to join this platform. Guilin is the first city in Guangxi to be selected for the “Nature Cities” platform.
Guangxi is recognized as one of the 25 global biodiversity hotspots, ranking third in the country for biodiversity richness. Guilin is a crucial part of Guangxi’s biodiversity conservation efforts, with 638 known terrestrial wild vertebrate species and 3,120 species of wild vascular plants. The city has established 32 nature reserves covering an area of 624,100 hectares.
In recent years, Guilin has firmly committed to protecting its stunning landscapes, striving to transform the Li River into a model for integrated river management in China and a world-class example of ecological protection, providing a “Guilin experience” that can be referenced and promoted globally.
