Research on the implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity among the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries

HAO Yun , WU Mio , , ZHANG Xioyun WANG Lixin HE Jingjing

a Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi, 830011, China

b Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Urumqi, 830011, China

Keywords:Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)Biodiversity conservation Convention on Biological Diversity(CBD)International cooperation Cross-border cooperation Multilateral cooperation

A B S T R A C T

1.Introduction

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) was established in Shanghai, China in June 2001, including nine countries: China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.The purpose of the SCO is to strengthen mutual trust and good neighborly friendship among member states, encourage effective cooperation among member states in politics, economy, trade, technology, culture, education, energy, transportation,tourism, environmental protection, and other fields, work together to maintain and safeguard regional peace, security,and stability, and promote the establishment of a new democratic, fair, and rational political and economic international order (SCO, 2023).

The SCO covers all the major ecosystems of the world, including terrestrial forest ecosystem, grassland ecosystem,water ecosystem, wetland ecosystem, and marine ecosystem, spanning the boreal, temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones, and is extremely rich in species diversity.The uniqueness of these mountain ecosystems (such as the Himalayas and the Tianshan Mountains), large lake ecosystems (the Caspian Sea, the Aral Sea, the Lake Baikal, the Lake Issyk-Kul, etc.), and vast desert ecosystems (the Taklimakan Desert, the Karakum Desert, the Kyzylkum Desert, and the Thar Desert) and their species are important and irreplaceable for the composition and conservation of global biodiversity.In June 2018, the Qingdao Declaration of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO stated that “Keeping in mind the importance of preserving an environmental balance in the SCO space, restoring biodiversity in the interests of future generations, and creating favourable conditions for people’s lives and sustainable development”.The Concept of the SCO Member State’s Cooperation in Environmental Production was adopted in 2018, marking that environmental cooperation and biodiversity conservation have been an important area of regional cooperation within the SCO framework.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was formally signed by 150 government leaders at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.It is a legally binding international treaty with three main objectives: biodiversity production,sustainable use of biodiversity, and fair and reasonable sharing of benefits arising from the use of genetic resources.Since CBD was formally adopted, most countries and regions of the world have responded positively, except for the United States, which has not ratified to date (CBD, 2023).For example, South Africa has a white paper on biodiversity policy, which is dedicated to the conservation of biodiversity (Teng, 2006).The 28 member states of the Organization of African Unity adopted African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources in Africa in September 1968, and African countries signed the Lusaka Agreement on joint control of illegal trade in wildlife in 1994 (Teng, 2006).The European Union (EU) Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 launched in 2020 aims to protect nature,reverse ecosystem degradation, and halt biodiversity loss (European Commission, 2020).Originally established to serve regional security, the SCO has expanded its cooperation to include more fields such as economy, culture, trade,and environmental protection.The promotion of biodiversity conservation under the SCO framework facilitates the achievement of integrated coordination as well as unified conservation of ecosystems.Most of the SCO countries are located at the important node of the Belt and Road.From the SCO Urban Ecological Well-being Development Plan,signed in Tashkent (the capital of Uzbekistan) in 2019, to the Plan of Measures for the Implementation of the Concept of Environmental Cooperation among the SCO member states for 2022-2024, adopted in Dushanbe (the capital of Tajikistan) in 2021, and the Outline of the SCO Green Belt, all these documents are aimed at advancing the SCO ecological and environmental cooperation agenda and achieving harmony between human and nature.Actively promoting and developing the cooperation of the SCO countries in the field of biodiversity protection will help to solve regional and even global biodiversity protection problems and promote the joint construction of the world“community with shared future”.

At present, scholars’ studies on biodiversity protection in the countries of the SCO mainly focused on the following points: (1) the current situation of biodiversity conservation in a single country (Zhang et al., 2010; Zuriguli et al.,2014; Nowak et al., 2020; Wang and Zou, 2020; Lashari et al., 2021), a certain region of one country (Wang, 1989;Jiang, 1995; Zhang and Guo, 2007; Khan and Baig, 2020; Dodson et al., 2023), or a region such as Central Asia(Albert et al., 2020; Gaisberger et al., 2020; Zadereev et al., 2020); (2) the management system of nature reserves(Zhou et al., 2013; Liao et al., 2016; Tang et al., 2018; Ghosh-Harihar et al., 2019; Pilkington et al., 2020; Geltman et al., 2021), biodiversity protection, and human well-being (Guo and Wang, 2000; Meng et al., 2019; Nunez et al.,2020; Srivathsa et al., 2023); and (3) in-depth research on the legislation of biological genetic resources in India (Wei,2017; Wu and Li, 2017).However, the comprehensive research on the implementation of CBD and international cooperation in biodiversity protection is still lack now.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the progress of the implementation of CBD and international cooperation among the SCO countries, identify the common problems and challenges of the SCO member countries, and provide advisory support for the expansion of cooperation in biodiversity conservation under the SCO framework.

2.Methods

2.1.Study area

The SCO region (05°55′-81°85′N, 19°65′E-169°70′W) is located on the Eurasian continent, covering a vast geographical area with severe terrain fluctuations (elevation ranging from -155 to 8849 m), including plateaus, basins,hills, river valleys, etc.The region is surrounded by the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Indian Ocean, and there are high mountains such as the Himalayas in the region, so the climate of the SCO region has significant characteristics of longitudinal zonality and vertical zonality.And, the terrain also causes significant gradient changes in precipitation and temperature.The average precipitation in this region is about 470 mm, ranging from less than 50 mm in desert areas to over 2000 mm on windward slopes in mountainous areas.The average temperature of the entire region is 0.79°C with significant spatial differences.The annual average temperature in polar and alpine regions is below 0.00°C, while in the south of 30°N, the annual average temperature is mostly above 10.00°C (Xie et al., 2022).

2.2.Data sources

In this paper, China National Knowledge Internet (CNKI), Web of Science, and Russian eLibrary databases were used to search the literature on the implementation of CBD in the SCO countries (Table 1).Only 87 publications were found in Web of Science database (data in 2023 may be incomplete, as the databases lag), and among them, most articles are about biodiversity conservation and governance in China and India (Venkataraman and Latha, 2008;Arunachalam and Roy, 2010; Faizi and Ravichandran, 2016; Qin, 2021).We found 408 publications in CNKI, which include a large amount of irrelevant literature due to the database itself; most articles are about the implementation of the CBD in China.Due to the particularity of the Russian eLibrary database, we used the keyword of “Convention on Biological Diversity” for searching and finally retrieved 168 publications.Most of the articles obtained from the eLibrary have been conducted from Russian perspective.Besides, we also collected national reports submitted to the Secretariat of CBD by the SCO countries.

Table 1Search strategy for the implementation of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries.

3.Implementation actions by the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) countries

3.1.Biodiversity management mechanism

The different resource endowments, natural geographical conditions, and socio-economic development levels of the SCO countries have led to differences in the concepts of natural resources management and ecological environment protection.Some countries have continuously improved their biodiversity management mechanisms in the process of implementing the CBD, further meeting the requirements of regulatory work following ecosystem principles and strengthening the protection of biodiversity.For example, the Chinese government carried out the reform in the field of ecological environment in 2018 and established professional management agencies, such as the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources, and the National Forestry and Grassland Administration under the concept of “integrated management of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, and grasses”(Zhang, 2018).The government of Kazakhstan reorganized the Ministry of Oil and Gas, the Ministry of Industry and New Technology, and the Ministry of Environmental and Water Resources to establish the Ministry of Energy in 2014,which reduced the status of ecological environmental protection to a certain extent.Since then, to strengthen the protection of ecological environment, the government of Kazakhstan established the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources in 2019, reflecting the concept of unified management of natural resources.In November 2021, Kyrgyzstan established the Ministry of Natural Resources, Ecology and Technology Supervision through restructuring to strengthen the management of natural resources and ecological environment.For the other SCO countries, due to domestic situation, poverty, economic structure, and other reasons, the methods and concepts of biodiversity management need to be improved in these countries.

As can be seen from the central executive agencies of the CBD, different SCO countries have different priorities in carrying out biodiversity protection work.Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan are more closely integrated biodiversity conservation with agricultural work, and their focus is not only on protection but also on the utilization of biodiversity resources.Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, and other mountainous countries, which are more sensitive to climate change, closely link biodiversity conservation to forestry work.

The biodiversity management mechanism of the SCO countries is generally divided into central and local two levels of management.The local management in some countries includes community forces, such as India,Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, which is conducive to expanding public participation and mobilizing residents to actively participate in biodiversity protection.However, on the other hand, the local management exists the problem of the weak capacity of local governance agencies, which requires capacity training for local governance agencies, especially communities, to strengthen the implementation of biodiversity-related plans in local communities.To ensure the effectiveness of various management agencies in the protection and management of biogenetic resources, India has also established corresponding biodiversity funds, which are mainly from government grants, donations, and loans, as financial support at all levels of management agencies to pay for benefit advocates,protection of biological genetic resources, etc., including national biodiversity fund, state biodiversity fund, and local biodiversity fund (Dong and Huang, 2008; Xue, 2017).

The biodiversity management agencies and mechanisms of the SCO countries directly affect the performance of the country and reflect the concept of biodiversity protection of the country, which in turn affects the participation of countries in the international agenda in biodiversity conservation field and the technical, financial, and intellectual assistance available to developing countries.

3.2.Policies and regulations

Shortly after joining the CBD, the SCO countries issued a series of relevant laws and regulations to deter and punish acts that damage the environment or threaten biodiversity at the national legal level (Table 2).

Table 2Summary of biodiversity conservation actions implemented by the SCO countries.

China and India are both important providers and major users of genetic resources, and both them attach great importance to the protection of genetic resources.China has formed a legal system including the Seed Law, Regulation on Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Regulation on Wild Plants Production, and Measures for the Administration of Crop Germplasm Resources to protect and conserve the genetic resources as much as possible (Wang, 2009).Policies and measures for biodiversity protection have been enshrined in the Constitution of India.Besides, this country has also promulgated special legislation governing genetic resources.The Biodiversity Act 2002 (enacted in 2003) and the Biodiversity Rules (enacted in 2004) clearly define the sovereignty of the state over its biological resources and its associated traditional knowledge, principles of protection, competent authorities, management systems, access and benefit-sharing.The Guidelines on Regulations of Access to Biological Resource and Associated Traditional Knowledge and Benefit Sharing were enacted in 2014, which contain clear and detailed provisions on biological research and utilization, and the form and proportion of benefits from commercial exploitation (Wu and Li, 2017).At present, India has built an institutional system for the benefit sharing of genetic resources, which is worth learning for the other SCO countries (Wang et al., 2018).

By renting forest resources and implementing sustainable traditional natural resource management projects, Russia has explored a new model of ecological benefit instead of the previous deforestation measure.This country has made some progress in the protection of traditional knowledge but is still studying whether to accede to the Nagoya Protocol on access to genetic resources and the fair and equal sharing of benefits from their use (Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation, 2014).

Other SCO countries have also gradually revised their laws and regulations in the field of ecological environment to meet the requirements of biodiversity protection, reflecting the principle of “avoidance-reduction-restorationcompensation”, and have formulated norms and methods for assessing the indirect negative impacts on animals and plants.

3.3.National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) and national reports

National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) are the key instrument for translating the CBD into national actions.The role of NBSAPs was reinforced in 2010 by the adoption of the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets at the 10thConference of the Parties (COP 10) to CBD.NBSAPs and national reports are important components of national implementation.After the ratification of CBD, the SCO countries not only formulated their NBSAPs, but also continuously updated and improved them; they also introduced other supporting policies to improve the effectiveness of biodiversity protection.For example, India issued the National Environmental Policy (2006) and the National Climate Change Adaptation Plan (2008) (Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, 2006,2008); Kazakhstan formulated the Concept of Biodiversity Protection and Sustainable Utilization by 2030 and put forward a long-term plan for biodiversity protection (Ministry of Energy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2015).With the help of international organizations, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have applied the advanced protection experiences and technologies from other countries to their biodiversity protection work and carried out specific protection work for some species, e.g., Kyrgyzstan puts satellite tracking collars on snow leopards for research (He, 2016).

In addition, according to the requirements of CBD, the SCO countries regularly publish national biodiversity reports.National reports are the most important tool for biodiversity conservation hence sustainable development,which allows the COP to monitor the implementation of CBD by providing materials for preparation of the regular Global Biodiversity Outlook.The first NBSAP is the first national report of each country.Since then, the progress of national biodiversity conservation work has been regularly updated as required.Theoretically, six reports should be submitted up to now.However, there are differences in the complete effect of this task among the SCO countries.For example, Uzbekistan did not submit the second and fourth reports, and Kyrgyzstan did not submit the second report.

3.4.International cooperation

The SCO countries actively cooperate with relevant international organizations in the field of biodiversity protection, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the United Nations Environment Programme(UNEP), the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Arctic Council, the Economic, and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), etc.The major influential international organizations on biodiversity conservation within the SCO countries are the United Nations, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Global Environment Fund (GEF).In addition, cooperation with the European Union, the World Wildlife Fund for Nature, the World Bank, and other international organizations has become more active for biodiversity conservation in the SCO countries.Among all the international organizations cooperated with the SCO countries, GEF is the main funding institution of CBD, and developing countries are actively seeking GEF projects and hope to obtain more financial support.

China and India are proactive in carrying out international cooperation on biodiversity and are committed to forming cooperative forces through international cooperation to reach a consensus on a topic of common concern.China has carried out close cooperation with Central and Eastern Europe, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations(ASEAN), and African countries, and has provided relevant biodiversity protection training for 3000 participants from 106 developing countries by 2018 (Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the People’s Republic of China, 2018).China and India, which own rich biodiversity and abundant relevant traditional knowledge, together with 15 superdiversified countries, have formed the “Super Biodiversity National Alliance”, accounting for nearly 70% of global biodiversity.The National Biodiversity Authority of India cooperates with the ASEAN biodiversity research center to carry out strategic, programmatic, and institutional long-term collaboration on biodiversity-related issues (Ministry of Environment and Forest, 2005).

Russia pays special attention to cooperating with Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries in the field of ecological and environmental protection and promotes collaboration in biodiversity protection through policy coordination and scientific research cooperation.Under the framework of CIS, the inter-state environmental protection department has been established and some ecological and environmental laws have been formulated, which are usually recommended to the member states of CIS in the form of initiatives and are adopted and evolved into national laws by the member states, such as the Ecological Security Law and the Ecological Supervision Law (Lin,2017).In addition, in 1995, Russia and Kazakhstan signed an intergovernmental agreement on environmental protection in border areas.The National Center for Biodiversity and Biosafety of Tajikistan and the Russian Academy of Sciences jointly organized a scientific investigation in central and southern Tajikistan to assess the plant resources in natural reserves.

Other SCO countries hope to combine biodiversity protection and poverty reduction through international cooperation and expand the sources of funding for biodiversity protection through revenue from ecosystem services,open financing channels, and other ways in line with international standards (Table 3).

Table 3Overview of regional cooperation in the field of biodiversity conservation in the SCO countries.

4.Existing problems

4.1.Not optimistic biodiversity conservation project implementation status

According to the information from the Secretariat of CBD, the 20 Aichi Biodiversity Targets, set by the 10thCOP held in 2010, have basically not been achieved (Zhou, 2021).India and China achieved their Aichi Biodiversity Targets well overall, with some exceeding their targets.However, India has not completed the 9th, 19th, and 20thtargets,indicating that there are alien invasive species, biodiversity loss, and insufficient biodiversity protection fund problems in the field of biological diversity protection in this country.China has not yet achieved the 6th, 9th, 10th, and 12thtargets, and is still facing problems such as overfishing, alien invasive species, marine ecosystems degradation,and endangered species.Kazakhstan and Tajikistan make slow progress in enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem benefits, and Tajikistan performs worst on the completion of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets by only achieving five targets.Kyrgyzstan performs poorly in reducing direct pressure on biodiversity and promoting sustainable use.

Same with the situation of the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the implementation of NBSAPs is also not satisfactory in the SCO countries, except for China and India.In short, the implementation of various projects is not optimistic in the SCO countries until now.To achieve greater success in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, the SCO countries still have a lot of work to do.

4.2.Contradiction between ecological protection and economic development

All the SCO countries belong to developing countries or emerging economies whose primary tasks are food security and livelihood security at the present stage.Therefore, a sharp contradiction exists between economic development and ecological environment protection, including biodiversity in the SCO countries.From the perspective of economy development, although many countries have put forward the development concept of “Green economy”, but current situation is that most of them are still in the transition stage to “Green economy” or just in the concept stage.When biodiversity protection and economic development conflict, economic development is still the priority focus of the government in the most SCO countries, poverty is the main scruple of local governments for conducting biodiversity protection actions.In addition, the biodiversity protection provisions at the relevant legal level are difficult to be truly implemented.Due to the imperfect legal and policy system, the legislation and implementation of biogenetic resource protection progress slowly.From the perspective of ecological environment protection, the intensification of human activities and the superposition of natural factors such as climate change, pose a serious threat to biodiversity.

4.3.Impact of human activities on biodiversity

At present, the combined influence of natural and human factors such as desertification, natural disasters,construction activities, environmental pollution, forest fires, and illegal logging, leads to ecosystem degradation and fragmentation, further triggering loss of natural habitat and even species extinction.The primary factor causing the reduction of biodiversity is the impact of human activities.According to the assessment made by the University of Bonn and the Swedish Agricultural University on biodiversity and ecosystem services in Europe and Central Asia(IPBES, 2018), 11% of the endemic species in Central Asia are extremely endangered, 6% are vulnerable, and 17%are critically endangered species.

Most of the SCO countries are located in arid and semi-arid areas with fragile natural environment.Along with the rapid growth of population and the rapid expansion of agricultural land and urbanization, both the drought ecosystem degradation and species disappearance that are caused by overdraft utilization of water resources occur more and more frequently.The most typical example is the Aral Sea ecological crisis.Due to the expansion of farmland and a large amount of water diversion and irrigation, more than 90% of the lake surface disappeared, and the Aral Sea dry lake basin degenerated into the Aralkum Desert.The decline in water level caused the loss of biodiversity in water body of the Aral Sea and the areas near it, specifically, the once abundant bream, carp, and other freshwater fish decreased significantly or even disappeared (He et al., 2021).

4.4.Varying degrees of policy compliance

Although the SCO countries have made efforts to be close to the standards of relevant international conventions in terms of biodiversity protection policies, there are still problems such as being divorced from their reality, not participating in relevant conventions, and uneven development of national policies and systems, which have affected the implementation of biodiversity protection.For example, Russia and Uzbekistan have not yet acceded to the Nagoya Protocol.Among the SCO countries that have acceded the Nagoya Protocol, India and China have done better in formulating relevant policies and regulations, and other countries need to be further improved.In addition, while continuing to integrate biodiversity protection into existing policies and regulations, the SCO countries should also pay more attention to the benefit-sharing of genetic resources and the construction of traditional knowledge protection system, which would be better to determine in the form of law so that biodiversity resources can truly bring tangible benefits to residents and facilitate the implementation of biodiversity conservation policies and laws.

4.5.Lack of funds and talents for biodiversity protection

It can be seen from the above analysis that in terms of the completion of Aichi Biodiversity Targets, except for China and India, the other SCO countries are far behind the requirements of goals.On the one hand, these countries have problems in policy-making, i.e., the goals set are too ambitious and out of touch with their realities (Yann et al,2018), leading to missing goals.On the other hand, these countries also lack professionals in the field of biodiversity,especially high-level talents (Nurgabylova, 2018).

Developing countries are generally faced with the problem of lack of funds for ecological and environmental protection, causing relevant projects to be shelved and unable to be carried out (ECO, 2019).According to the report of OECD (2007), the per capita expenditure on ecological environmental protection of Russia, the four Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan), Eastern Europe, and the Caucasus Region are less than 40 USD, which is not comparable to developed countries.Kyrgyzstan’s per capita expenditure is even less than 5 USD.Among the already low share of environmental protection expenditure, countries’ funds for biodiversity protection are even more insufficient.From 2000 to 2005, except for Tajikistan, which has an unusually high proportion of funds for biodiversity protection to the expenditure of ecological environmental protection (93%), the proportions are very low in Kyrgyzstan (11%), Russia (5%), Uzbekistan (2%), and Kazakhstan.Insufficient investment directly leads to the difficulty in achieving effective results in biodiversity conservation.

4.6.Challenges faced by cross-border biodiversity conservation

Although the SCO countries have actively promoted cooperation in the field of ecological environment, including biodiversity protection, border conflicts, cross-border water use, epidemics, and other reasons that brought in negative impacts on bilateral and multilateral biodiversity protection cooperation among the SCO countries in recent years.

Antpedia (2018) showed that war has a direct impact on the biodiversity of conflict areas, and the growth rate of animal numbers decreases with the increase of conflict frequency.The frequent border conflicts between India and Pakistan and between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have not only directly caused the loss of biodiversity in the border area but also affected the willing of biodiversity conservation cooperation between conflict sides.

Whether the outbreak of COVID-19 has a direct impact on biodiversity is still uncertain, but it is an indisputable fact that the strict circulation restrictions conducted by various countries on cross-border to blocking-up the epidemic have hindered international cooperation and exchange of biodiversity protection seriously.Media has reported that COVID-19 did affect the global climate and biodiversity action process (Li, 2020).

The Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers, as the main supply rivers in the Aral Sea Basin, are cross-border rivers, while the disputes about river water allocation in the upstream and downstream countries have not been effectively resolved after the collapse of the Soviet Union.With the development of regional population and economy, the disputes caused by cross-border water use have become more and more serious (Wu, 2022).If the problem of water resource allocation cannot be solved reasonably, it will affect the rational utilization of water resources in the whole basin, and thus continue to have a negative impact on regional biodiversity.

Since most SCO countries are neighbors with common borders and ecosystems, if transnational biodiversity protection cooperation is affected, it is bound to have negative consequences for the regional biodiversity situation.

5.Suggestions

According to the above analysis, the loss of biodiversity in the SCO countries is serious, and the level of biodiversity protection is uneven.The SCO countries are located in the core area of the Belt and Road, and the biodiversity protection in this region is related to the development of the Green Belt and Road.China has undertaken the COP 15,also called the United Nations Biodiversity Conference and participated in the formulation of the post-2020 framework.The SCO is an international multilateral mechanism led by China, so China can make full use of the SCO platform to conduct demand negotiations with member states, seek common interests, formulate practical biodiversity conservation goals, coordinate and unify the national positions of all member states, promote member states to reach political consensus, improve the implementation effect of CBD, and achieve the post-2020 global biodiversity targets through collaboration.

5.1.Setting up biodiversity conservation projects

The SCO countries, which are rich in biogenetic resources and diverse ecosystems, are important providers of genetic resources.It is suggested to explore and build a multilateral model for access to and benefit-sharing of regional biogenetic resources within the SCO framework.By setting up special projects, the SCO can draw the attention of its member states to the issue of biodiversity conservation and strengthen their cooperation on COP 15, thus forming a relatively unified national position and further striving for the best interests of regional developing countries.

5.2.Establishing biodiversity conservation funds

Since biodiversity protection is a systematic project that requires a long-term stable investment of human, material,and financial resources, the SCO countries need to strengthen investment.The Trust Fund for Biodiversity is one of the long-term financial organizations for the international community to protect biodiversity and ecosystems.On COP 15, the SCO member states maybe propose to establish trust funds of biodiversity conservation, including the establishment of major projects for biodiversity protection and related public welfare scientific research projects.Among the SCO countries, emerging market countries (China, India, and Russia) are expected to contribute more on providing funds, due to these countries hoping to gain more voice while increasing their contributions (Chai et al.,2015).By promoting the connection between biodiversity protection under the SCO framework and the Belt and Road Initiative, China can encourage its SCO member states to link up with international financial organizations, facilitate the achievement of biodiversity conservation goals and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals (SDGs),improve the efficiency of fund use, generate global environmental benefits, and strive for a greater say in the allocation of funds for itself.

5.3.Carrying out talent training and exchange

As emerging market countries with strong comprehensive national strength, China, Russia, and India can share their successful experience in biodiversity conservation with their SCO partner countries under the principle of joint consultation and sharing.In addition, the three powerful countries also should jointly discuss and build with countries that implement the Aichi Biodiversity Targets, the SCO biodiversity conservation goals, and other projects slowly, to help them improve their implementation capacity and efficiency.Under the multilateral cooperation framework of the SCO, the government of China could consider carrying out a special plan for the training and exchange of young talents in the fields of management, law, and scientific research support of biodiversity protection and increasing the number of eco-environmental professionals in Shanghai Cooperation Organization University to improve the policymaking capacity of member states, deepen multilateral cooperation, and enhance the cohesion and identity of the SCO.

5.4.Strengthening cross-border cooperation

Cross-border cooperation in biodiversity protection is a good entry point for the SCO countries to carry out environmental protection cooperation, and it is also the weak link of international cooperation in biodiversity protection, especially in China’s surrounding areas.Information disclosure is the basis for the SCO countries to jointly carry out biodiversity protection.The SCO countries generally support the sharing of eco-environmental information.In this regard, the SCO countries should strengthen cross-border cooperation in the field of biodiversity conservation among cross-border protected areas, adjacent protected areas, and regional networks, use existing platforms such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Environment Information Sharing Platform and the Research Center for Ecology and Environment of Central Asia, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences to promote cross-border cooperation at the government and non-government levels, and form regional protection networks for key specie protection.

5.5.Establishing a coordination and cooperation mechanism

To promote the implementation of above measures, it is suggested to establish a biodiversity protection coordination mechanism within the framework of the SCO.We can build the coordination mechanism for the following three aspects.First, biodiversity protection should be incorporated in the regular content of ministerial meetings and consultations.Second, a professional group composed of experts from all countries should be set up to negotiate the focus issues of concern to all countries, such as the implementation of contract.Third, loose organizations like peer alliances at the level of professional institutions, such as national scientific research institutions, non-government organizations (NGOs), financial institutions, etc., should be established to facilitate cooperation and exchange in scientific research, talent training, information exchange, fundraising, community publicity, etc.

6.Conclusions

The SCO countries take implementation actions on improving biodiversity management mechanism, formulating policies and regulations, writing NBSAPs and national reports, and developing international cooperation with international organizations and other countries to better conserve biodiversity.Although the SCO countries have made efforts to be close to the standards of relevant international conventions, there are still existing problems, in which the lack of funds and talents for biodiversity protection is fundamental.Lack of funds exacerbates conflicts between ecological protection and economic development, and talent scarcity leads to impractical policy formulation and difficulties in implementation.Besides, the SCO countries still face challenges in cross-border biodiversity conservation.In light of this, we suggest to set up biodiversity conservation projects, establish biodiversity conservation funds, carry out talent training and exchange, strengthen cross-border cooperation, and establish a coordination and cooperation mechanism for biodiversity protection in the framework of SCO.

The above-mentioned suggestions will help to coordinate the cooperation of the SCO member states in the field of biodiversity conservation, promote the efficiency of cross-border ecosystem and species conservation, and contribute to the global biodiversity conservation and the achievement of the post-2020 biodiversity framework targets.

In this study, we did not focus on Iran, an SCO country, because Iran joined the SCO on 3 July 2023.This is a shortcoming of this study and also a direction for future research.

Authorship contribution statement

HAO Yun: data curation, formal analysis, methodology, writing-original draft, and writing-review & editing; WU Miao: writing-review & editing; ZHANG Xiaoyun: data curation and resources; WANG Lixian: data curation,resources, and funding acquisition; and HE Jingjing: data curation and resources.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the International Cooperation and Compliance Programme of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the People’s Republic of China (22110106029).