Earth Hour spotlights biodiversity in Bay Area

Lights are turned off at the Earth Hour event in Shenzhen on Saturday. Sun Yuchen 

Shenzhen once again took part in Earth Hour, the world’s largest environmental event, as an array of activities was held Saturday in Futian District to encourage people not only to switch off the lights between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m., but also to join millions in protecting biodiversity in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Earth Hour, which is held annually, was initiated by World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in 2007. With this year’s theme, “Connect to Earth,” WWF also joined hands with One Planet Foundation (OPF) to invite experts to conduct research on and launch an ecological map of the Greater Bay Area, in order to call attention from all walks of life to the promotion of ecological progress in the area.

The map was officially unveiled by the WWF celebrity ambassador for Chinese white dolphin protection, Song Jia, at the 2019 Earth Hour event at SCPG Center in Futian.

“I am very honored to be the WWF celebrity ambassador for Chinese white dolphin protection and I hope to get more people involved in understanding the situation of Chinese white dolphins so as to understand our own,” Song told the Shenzhen Daily, adding that “we can start protecting animals and the environment by just doing tiny little things in our daily life, such as using water bottles and replacing plastic bags with recycled bags when we go shopping.”

In addition to this event, a carnival sharing the theme, “Connect to Earth,” was organized Saturday and Sunday at the art square in Xiangmi Park, which was open to the public for free.

This is the first time that institutions and enterprises have held a carnival centering on the topic of biodiversity in the Greater Bay Area, according to staff at WWF and OPF.

A representative from WWF and OPF, Luo Yuannan, said, “We hope this carnival, through various kinds of activities like games and handicrafts, will raise residents’ awareness of the importance of biodiversity where we live. We want to engage more to protect valuable animals in the Greater Bay Area.”

The two-day carnival attracted many children accompanied by their parents. A father on the scene told the Shenzhen Daily, “Interactions like this are great opportunities for kids to learn more about the earth, as they don’t get access to this knowledge very often.”

Besides Shenzhen, Earth Hour-related activities were also held in many other cities in China, including Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu and Changchun, with the same focus on biodiversity but based on the local ecological habitats.