Haiguo Seapot: We love Dianchi Lake

The 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) is set to take place in Kunming, Yunnan province，as a two-part summit from October 11 to 15, 2021 and in early 2022, respectively.

Sea Pot, a monkey-faced staffer with Yunnan Gateway, has held talks with his friends, many of whom are local conservationists on bio-diversity.

Dubbed as a pearl on the plateau, Dianchi, or the Kunming Lake, is the largest freshwater lake in Yunnan province.   

Dianchi has seen marked conservation results in recent years. The lake’s water quality remained at Class IV from January to April this year.

In the third talk, we have Li Yi, secretary general of the Yunnan Foundation for Dianchi Conservation and Management, and the topic is on the Dianchi Lake and its biodiversity protection.

Q: What’s the remarkable result in Dianchi protection over the years?

A: By building up 20 plus sewage treatment plants along the Dianchi Lake, the pollutants in the surrounding rivers were controlled before they could enter the lake.

Pollutants in the villages around Dianchi were cut via industrial restructuring.

Q: Dianchi is a major plateau lake in Yunnan. In conserving the lake, are there any practices and results that can be shared with peers in neighboring countries?

A: As a plateau lake, Dianchi is hard to be conserved for its weakness in ecological self-restoration. Kunming government has created a model for protecting the lake.

Paralleling conservation and development, the model can be applied to treating other polluted highland lakes in the neighboring countries.

Learning from the sister city of Zurich in lake conservation, Kunming could increase exchanges with the ASEAN countries, especially the lakeside cities.

Q: What’s the foundations’ action to protect the lake’s biodiversity over the years?

To conserve biodiversity is to protect the diverse species, ecologies and genetic resources.

In investigation tours, we’ve discovered one after another the species missing for many years and a largest number of bird species were recorded in Dianchi area.

Through the joint efforts, we’re trying to build community with a shared future for hills, woods, fields, lakes and grasses in the lake basin.

By gateway reporters