On September 24th, Lanzhou University (LZU) and Gansu Provincial Department of Education hosted the 2018 “Belt and Road Initiative” University Alliance Ecological Civilization Theme Forum, during which participants both at home and abroad shared new achievements in the construction of colleges and universities, which depicts a new chapter in the “Belt and Road” higher education community and explores the new experience of “Belt and Road Initiative” ecological civilization construction.
Yan Chunhua, president of LZU and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, gave a welcome speech and introduced the basic situation of LZU and the “Belt and Road” college alliance. Yan Chunhua said that the forum was held under the framework of the "Belt and Road Initiative". Geographically, most countries and regions along the road face the common pressing challenges of ecosystem sustainability and climate change. Gansu Province is typically representative of biodiversity and ecosystem types. After nearly 110 years of development, LZU has been ranked among the top in the country for ecological and related disciplines, contributing more to the defarming-and-reafforestation project, soil erosion control, natural forest protection, wind and sand control, water-saving and drought resistance, and agricultural and livestock breeding development in Gansu. Through a series of protection and ecological gorvernance, a relatively complete experience in the construction of ecological civilization has been accumulated, providing theories and practices reference to the countries and regions along the road.
Dr. Juliette Biao, Director of the UNEP Africa Office, said that we live in an environment that is more closely linked than ever before, and that changes in the ecological environment are closely related to everyone. She calls on people to think as global citizens and make decisions based on solid knowledge to put the environment protection into action.
The forum gave 37 academic reports addressed by well-known experts at home and abroad, including Prof. Fu Bojie from the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Pakistan Science Foundation, Academician of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences Muhammad Ashraf, Academician Zhang Renhe of Fudan University, Senior Professor of the University of Western Australia, and Australian Institute of Technical Science and Engineering (FTSE) Academician Kadambot Siddique, Academician Sabur F. Abdullaev of the Tajik Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the Australian Institute of Technical Science and Engineering (FTSE), winner of the Chinese Government Friendship Award, Academician of the Gansu Provincial People's Government Dunhuang Award, Academician Neil C. Turner, Australian Institute of Technology Science and Engineering (FTSE) Academician Kenneth Hodgkinson and Prof. Li Fengmin from Lanzhou University, etc. During the forum, the invited experts also held a roundtable to draw up relevant action plans at the evening of September 24th.
(Translated by Zhang Yuyuan; proofread by Sun Lianyue; edited by Zhang Yuyuan)
