Mapping Chinese non-state actors in biodiversity conservation

Background/Question/Methods

: Biodiversity conservation requires the participation of state and non-state actors. Over the past decade, Chinese influence on global biodiversity conservation has dramatically increased. International collaborations are critically needed for conservation beyond geographic borders, but are never easy due to complex cultural and socio-political contexts. The goal of this study is to help international partners understand the landscape and roles of Chinese non-state actors in protecting biodiversity in China. We used keyword search on the China NPO Service Platform to obtain a unique list of 8,386 NGOs registered under the Ministry of Civic Affairs and Civic Affairs Bureaus, and containing one of 11 environment-relevant keywords in their names. We filtered organizations by their self-declared business scope statement in their registration documentation to identify environmental protection and biodiversity conservation NGOs. The “100+ Biodiversity Positive Practices and Actions Around the World” campaign awarded at the CBD COP15 NGO Parallel Forum acknowledged and showcased outstanding contributions from the most current, active non-state actors in biodiversity conservation in and beyond China. We integrated deductive coding and inductive coding to analyze the vision statements of the 80 awarded Chinese organizations to obtain a comprehensive list of different roles Chinese non-state actors undertake in conservation.

Results/Conclusions

: Our result shows that over 3,863 registered NGOs are currently actively engaged in environmental protection services in China, including at least 1,387 NGOs primarily focusing on biodiversity conservation. 67.3% of the biodiversity conservation NGOs are registered as social organizations, 29.0% as private non-enterprise organizations, and 3.7% as foundations. The temporal trend of NGO registration since 1990 corresponds with major environmental events and legislations in China. Provinces with the most biodiversity conservation NGOs registered, including Sichuan (n=99), Guangdong (n=85), Zhejiang (n=83), Yunan (n=82), and Fujian Provinces (n=82), host the highest species richness of the country and are undergoing rapid economic growth. 95% of the CBD COP15-awarded active Chinese non-state organizations are locally based. We found these non-state actors contribute to biodiversity conservation in China from seven different aspects: 1) information collection and research, 2) promotion and awareness, 3) policy advocacy, 4) resource support and capacity building, 5) innovative action research, 6) conservation implementation and 7) monitoring and evaluation. This study traces the historical development and reveals the current landscape of conservation organizations in China. It sets the stage for international collaborations, particularly with non-state actors, to safeguard life on earth beyond national and political boundaries.