Schools – Wild Beijing 北京自然

Last week I was honoured to be invited to deliver a series of lectures about biodiversity to more than 3,500 students at schools in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province. Inspired by China hosting the United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity in October 2020, the local government commissioned these lectures to raise awareness of biodiversity among its students and to advance the students’ English language skills.

It was a wonderful opportunity to explain how we have lost more than 60% of the mammals and birds on our planet since 1970 and to use the example of the Soho China Beijing Swift project, where students wrote to the CEO of a major buildings company and secured commitments to make new buildings better for biodiversity, to show how young people can make a difference.

Of course, these students are lucky to live in Sichuan Province, an area with some of the most biodiverse temperate forests in the world (thanks to being shielded by the mountains during the last ice age). There are many mammals, birds and plants that are found nowhere else on Earth.

As is often the case when speaking to students in China, I was immensely impressed with their work ethic (they get up at 0630 and study until 2130 every day), their enthusiasm for nature and their creative ideas about how to make a difference.

After each lecture, the students were given an assignment to find out about a species of mammal, bird or plant found only in Sichuan, to write about why it is special and to set out their ideas for how to ensure it is protected. Over the next few weeks, we’ll be reviewing the submissions and selecting the best to be recognised by the government.

Huge thanks to 新东方 (New Oriental) for making the arrangements.