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World Heritage sites are unique and special places, which protect ecological fragile areas of global importance. The World Heritage Committee, in its Decision 42 COM 7 strongly encouraged all banks, investment funds, insurance industry and other relevant private and public sector companies to integrate “no-go” commitment into their sustainability policies by not financing projects that may negatively impact World Heritage properties and ensuring the companies they are investing in subscribe to the “no-go” commitment.
As CBD COP 15 Presidency, China can play a leadership role to achieve an ambitious new Global Biodiversity Framework to halt biodiversity loss and achieve the 2050 vision of a world of living in harmony with nature. China has been promoting the concept of “Ecological Civilisation”, defining new relationships between people and nature that would permit living well, and within the eco-environmental bounds of planet Earth. As a key strategy for implementing the “Ecological Civilisation” concept, a new policy on “Ecological Redlines” was published to define priority areas for ecological protection where industrial developments will be severely restricted or excluded, which seems to be very similar to “no-go” commitment for extractive industries and other environmentally damaging development activities. By integrating “no-go” commitment in environmental policies, Chinese banks and financial institutions could provide a powerful statement of commitment to the conservation of the most outstanding areas of global biodiversity on the planet.
This report provides policy recommendations for banks and financial regulators in China, to protect World Natural Heritage. It analyses the performance of Chinese banks and the challenges they are facing in heritage protection, introduces "no-go" commitment and presents practices and experience of financial institutions worldwide. It serves as a guidebook for Chinese banks to participate in World Natural Heritage protection and biodiversity conservation, and contributes to global biodiversity targets and post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
