SZ shares ecological development practices in new white paper

A view of Kunpeng Trail No. 1 Bridge in Futian District, China’s first large-span prefabricated composite wildlife crossing. Lu Ying

SHENZHEN issued a white paper Monday detailing its approach to ecological development in a densely populated metropolis — home to more than 20 million residents within less than 2,000 square kilometers.

The document, titled “A City of Symbiosis: The Shenzhen Practice of Harmonious Coexistence between Humanity and Nature,” is structured in six chapters and includes 19 case studies showcasing the city’s environmental initiatives.

Its release follows the APEC Ministerial Meeting on Forestry held in Shenzhen last week, a key event of the APEC “China Year” that brought high-level representatives from member economies to discuss forest conservation and sustainable management.

The white paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Shenzhen’s concepts, practices, and achievements in building a modern, beautiful city that balances urban development with nature, and to share Shenzhen’s experience and insights with the international community.

The city’s ecological strategy is rooted in a series of concrete actions. In the early 1990s, city planners famously rerouted a major coastal highway, the Binhai Boulevard, 200 to 260 meters northward to protect the mangroves in Futian District, the only national-level nature reserve located in the heart of a major city.

This act of “giving way to nature” set a precedent for subsequent projects, including the construction of the nation’s first large-span, prefabricated composite wildlife crossing — the Kunpeng Trail No. 1 Bridge. Just 23 days after the bridge opened, a leopard cat was spotted crossing it.

Shenzhen has since evolved into a “City of a Thousand Parks,” with over 1,350 parks and an extensive network of more than 4,000 kilometers of greenways and 1,000 kilometers of ecological corridors. The city has also pioneered ecological valuation mechanisms, facilitating the country’s first public auction of blue carbon credits from mangrove conservation. Shenzhen has a forest coverage rate of 39%, more than 400 square kilometers of wetlands and nearly 30,000 recorded species of flora and fauna.

The white paper was released after the Secretariat of the International Mangrove Center was launched in Shenzhen this July.

The center, a global initiative proposed by China in 2022, officially entered its operational phase July 26 with an inauguration ceremony and its first council meeting. With its secretariat now operational, the center aims to promote joint research and capacity-building programs to coordinate global mangrove conservation efforts. (Shenzhen Daily)