The "Karst Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Resilience Enhancement Programme" (Karst Biodiversity Programme), led by Professor CHEN Hongsong from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture (ISA) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, was selected as an implementing initiative for UNESCO's International Decade of Sciences for Sustainable Development (IDSSD) for 2024-2033. The announcement was made on November 28.

The UNESCO-coordinated IDSSD aims to foster international consensus on the critical role of science in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs), addressing the balance between economic growth, social progress, and ecological protection. The selection recognizes ISA's open science solutions for karst biodiversity conservation, rocky desertification control, and ecological restoration.

The Karst Biodiversity Programme, a collaboration between the ISA and research institutions from the United States, Spain, South Africa, and other countries, addresses challenges such as ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss in karst ecosystems. These ecosystems cover 15% of the global land area and provide drinking water for 25% of the world's population.

The program will establish four open platforms including theoretical innovation, exchange and cooperation, knowledge dissemination, and science education.

These platforms will support a transnational observation network covering karst regions in Southwest China and Southeast Asia, the Circum-Mediterranean region, and the Southeastern United States. By integrating methods such as remote sensing, field sampling, and controlled experiments, the program will analyze biodiversity patterns and ecosystem functions in the karst critical zone. The goal is to enhance ecological resilience and sustainable development through cross-regional, multi-scale scientific observation and coordinated intervention, developing scalable karst ecological restoration technologies and and conducting research and demonstration for global application.

The program will also promote the generation, transformation, application, and dissemination of knowledge on karst ecological restoration, creating an open science outcome system that includes scientific journals, academic exchange, and public outreach. This will enhance both technological innovation and science popularization, supporting China's "Dual Carbon" goals and global sustainable development, and offering a China-led innovation pathway for achieving the UN SDGs.

"Karst regions are among the most critical areas on Earth's surface for  water supply, biodiversity maintenance, and carbon sinks, and they are  also ecologically fragile zones concentrated along the Belt and Road  countries," said Professor CHEN Hongsong, the project's chief scientist. 

The launch of the Karst Biodiversity Programme will, for the first time, integrate fragmented regional research into a transcontinental collaborative network. Through verifiable experimental data and open models, it will transform China's experience in rocky desertification control into common technologies for global karst biodiversity conservation and ecosystem resilience enhancement, providing nature-based solutions for the post-2030 agenda, he said.

The project is scheduled to begin full implementation on January 1, 2026, with the first ecological restoration demonstration areas expected by the end of 2028. A "Global Karst Ecosystem Resilience Enhancement White Paper" will be submitted to the United Nations.

The implementation of the project will not only strengthen China's leading role in global karst research but also provide a crucial scientific pathway for promoting the realization of "Ecological Civilization" and the "Global Development Initiative," and for building a community of all life on Earth where humans and nature coexist harmoniously.