China pledges active support to GMS countries in environment, biodiversity conservation

PHNOM PENH, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The government of China will still continue its active support to the Greater Mekong Sub- region (GMS) countries in order to strengthen and expand the sub-regional environmental cooperation, Xu Qinghua, special  representative of Zhou Shengxian, minister of environmental protection of China, said here on Thursday.
  “As a long-time supporter for GMS cooperation, China will continue to be an active player in promoting environmental  cooperation in the sub-regional to promote sustainable development,” he said during the 3rd GMS Environment Ministers’  meeting.
  The six countries in the GMS countries include China, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
  “The Chinese government attaches great importance to cooperating with other GMS countries and we deem good domestic  environmental performance as the basis for better sub-regional cooperation,” he said.
  Xu continued to say that China plans to provide portable water and air monitoring equipment to Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and  Vietnam in order to help strengthen their officials’ management capacity on environmental protection affairs.
  “Besides these, we will also organize policy and technical training programs on urban solid waste management for GMS  countries,” he said. “We hope to do what we can to help improve regional environmental management capacity.”
  Meanwhile, Xu said that Yunnan and Guangxi provinces, which are the main players in China participating in GMS cooperative  activities, have witnessed overall stable environmental quality and improved environmental management capacity.
  By 2010, in Yunnan province alone, there are 162 nature reserves, including 16 national reserves, covering a total area of 2.96  million hectares, he said.
  In Guangxi autonomous region, there are also 78 nature reserves of different kinds with a total area of 1.45 million hectares.
  The forest coverage of the two provinces reached 47.5 percent and 58 percent respectively.
  The GMS countries have engaged in regional environmental cooperation since 2006 through the Core Environment Program  and Biodiversity Conservation Corridors Initiative (CEP-BCI). This 30 million U.S. dollar program is expected to end in  December 2011.
  Cambodian Minister of Environment Mok Mareth said Thursday that the the 3rd GMS Environment Ministers’ meeting would  endorse the action plan 2012-2016 of CEP-BCI for environment cooperation to ensure balanced and sustainable economic  growth in the GMS countries.