Li Ziqiao gives her presentation on behalf of the Green Association ( Photo/College of Resources and Environment)
HZAU undergraduate Li Ziqiao, on behalf of the Green Association of HZAU, gave her presentation titled Building Beautiful Countryside, Pursuing Green Future, at the China-Southeast Asian Symposium on Friday, Dec. 16. The event, with the theme of Towards Ecological Civilisation: Education for Sustainable Rural Development, was held online by the UNESCO International Research and Training Centre for Rural Education (UNESCO INRULED).
At the symposium, Li gives a detailed introduction to the efforts and contributions made by the association in promoting sustainable rural development over the past 22 years. Three high-quality volunteer programs are presented as examples: “Green Dream”, “Lucid Water” and “Flying Feather under the Sky”.
In the Green Dream program, the Green Association has worked with dedication in rural environmental protection education. Each summer vacation, volunteers are selected and dispatched to ten more schools where they will give classes on nature to more than 2000 students. Their actions have raised pupils’ awareness of innovation and environmental protection. More importantly, their work has played a pivotal role in promoting sustainable development in rural areas.
The association has organized over 600 volunteers to carry out research on local waters of their hometown as well as water quality researches more than 1500 times. Be it in the streets or in the farmland, these youth campaign for water saving and protection, calling on locals to join the team of protecting their “Mother River”. The Lucid Stream Plan has significantly helped improve rural water systems, and promote green development and rural vitalization in all respects.
The countryside is home to birds. Yet they are now in urgent need of protection due to severe destruction and shrinking land of habitat, along with the population decline. The Flying Feather under the Sky program aims to establish a long-term mechanism for wild bird protection featured by the leadership of government, support from society and involvement of the public. Understanding the roles that birds have played in the ecosystem, villagers are now more willing to love and protect them. By promoting eco-friendly crop production mode, team members have also helped achieve a win-win result between bird protection and a good harvest.
The symposium invited over a dozen researchers, actors, and youth representatives in related fields from China, Laos, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. It aims to enhance the international community’s understanding of education for sustainable rural development under the framework of ecological civilization, through the discussions and exchanges on “policy and practice”, “university and local actions”, and “youth on the move”. It also seeks to mobilize and encourage the youth to engage in sustainable development actions, and to establish an innovation network. The Green Association of HZAU, one of the only two student associations from Chinese universities, was invited to give a 15 minutes presentation.
Translated by Yu Xianqin
Supervised by Wang Xiaoyan
Source: http://news.hzau.edu.cn/2022/1219/65403.shtml
