What would change if nature were treated as a core economic asset, rather than simply as an environmental concern?
Anchored in the World Bank Group-China partnership built on generating and sharing solutions for the broader global development agenda, the China–World Bank Group Global Center for Ecological Systems and Transitions (CWGC) designed the Ecological Civilization Flagship Knowledge Exchange Program, a structured, long-term knowledge-sharing platform that helps developing countries build capacity to scale ecosystem restoration. This year, the program brought together approximately 30 senior government representatives from 15 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including a five-day in-person exchange in China from September 7–11, co-organized with the Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Center (LCRC) of the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR).
Learning from China’s experience on ecosystem restoration
The program identifies lessons from China’s ecosystem restoration experience that can inform policies and investments in client countries, ranging from spatial planning to technologies to restore river, wetlands and forests, to financial mechanisms to incentivize nature restoration.
Over the past two decades, China has undertaken some of the world’s largest ecosystem restoration efforts, contributing to expanded forest cover, reduced land degradation and desertification, and the restoration of coastal ecosystems, mangroves, and wetlands. These efforts have been guided by a national development approach, commonly referred to as “Ecological Civilization,” which seeks to integrate environmental sustainability into economic and social development. It led to the establishment of the Ecological Conservation Red Lines system to protect areas critical for biodiversity and ecosystem services, strengthened ecological monitoring using digital technologies, and resulted in innovative financing mechanisms that incorporate the value of nature into decision making.
“The purpose of knowledge cooperation is not to transfer a model,” said Tatiana Rosito, World Bank Division Director for China, Mongolia and Korea. “It is to make experience accessible, examine it critically, and support countries in adapting what is relevant to their own circumstances.”
- The purpose of knowledge cooperation is not to transfer a model. It is to make experience accessible, examine it critically, and support countries in adapting what is relevant to their own circumstances.
