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Biodiversity conservation should be a core value of China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 2, pages 408–409 (2018)Cite this article

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To the Editor — China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI; also known as ‘One Belt One Road’) is potentially the largest infrastructure development in our lifetime. In 2013, President Xi Jinping revealed his vision for BRI, which is expected to be core to China’s development strategy for at least the next decade1. With an estimated cost of over 4 trillion US dollars, BRI will connect roughly half of the world’s population, across more than 65 countries, with land and marine routes2,3. Although much has been discussed about its economic and geopolitical implications, the implications of BRI for biodiversity must also be considered, especially in Asia.

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Fig. 1: Location of BRI’s terrestrial and marine routes21.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental and Geographical Sciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Alex Mark Lechner & Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz

  2. Mindset Interdisciplinary Centre for Environmental Studies, University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus, Jalan Broga, 43500, Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia

    Alex Mark Lechner & Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz

  3. School of Geographical Science, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, 315100, China

    Faith Ka Shun Chan

  4. Institute of Asia Pacific Studies (IAPS), Belt and Road Initiative Research Priorities Area, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, Ningbo, 315100, China

    Faith Ka Shun Chan

  5. School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Faith Ka Shun Chan

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  1. Alex Mark Lechner
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  3. Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz
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Correspondence to Alex Mark Lechner.

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Lechner, A.M., Chan, F.K.S. & Campos-Arceiz, A. Biodiversity conservation should be a core value of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. Nat Ecol Evol 2, 408–409 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-017-0452-8

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