At the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it was proposed to “optimize the ecological security barrier system, build ecological corridors and biodiversity protection networks, and improve the quality and stability of the ecosystem”. As an important part of ecological security and national non-traditional security, national biosafety has become increasingly prominent in the construction of ecological civilization and national security strategy.
With the deepening of the opening up to the outside world, the harm of alien biological invasion continues to intensify, causing economic losses of more than 200 billion yuan each year. Due to the lack of understanding of the importance of biological species, the loss of biological species resources in China has been relatively serious for a long time. To maintain national biological security is to effectively prevent alien biological invasion and loss of domestic species resources.
Why is national biosafety so important? What should we pay attention to when bringing animals, plants and related products into China?
On December 5, the “National Biosafety Exhibition” jointly launched by Zhejiang Natural Museum and Zhejiang Entry Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau was held in the temporary exhibition hall B on the first floor of Zhejiang Natural Museum, to popularize the basic knowledge of national biosafety to the public, deepen the public’s understanding of national biosafety, advocate the concept of protecting ecological security and building a beautiful China, and create a good atmosphere for the whole society to protect national biosafety.
This international biosafety exhibition is divided into six exhibition areas: concept, alien biological invasion, species resource protection, current situation, how to protect and public participation. The main content of this exhibition is to introduce alien biological invasion knowledge. It is presented through concept description, case analysis, video and physical display, interactive participation and other ways. Through the visit and study of this exhibition, we hope that the audience can realize that the biosafety protection of Guomen is an arduous and long-term systematic project, which requires the extensive participation of all sectors of society, so as to establish and practice the concept that green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains, treat the ecological environment like life, protect the biosafety of Guomen, and jointly build a beautiful ecological home.
Here, you can see the familiar species of Canada, such as a yellow flower, a snails, and a water hyacinth. Through the multimedia display of live pictures and videos, you will know their transmission routes and environmental hazards. Take the familiar water hyacinth as an example. Water hyacinth, also known as water hyacinth. About 1901, Eichhornia crassipes was introduced to Taiwan as an ornamental plant. In the 1930s, Eichhornia crassipes was introduced into Chinese Mainland from Taiwan. Since then, it has been widely planted as animal feed in various provinces of China. By the end of the 20th century, water hyacinth has been widely distributed in 17 provinces and cities in North China, East China, Central China and South China, and more than 10 provinces and cities have been harmed by water hyacinth. At present, China’s annual economic loss caused by hyacinth is close to 10 billion yuan, and the salvage cost alone is up to 500 million to 1 billion yuan.
Here, you will know the time and place of alien species invasion in our province and even the whole country and the severe situation of species resource loss through the special map. As far as Zhejiang is concerned, the snails originating in the Amazon River basin of South America are a famous invasive organism and an alien species in the West Lake of Hangzhou. In 1981, the snails were introduced into China as edible snails. However, eating the undercooked snails is easy to infect Angiostrongylus virus and endanger human health. In addition, the abundance of snails is amazing, which can cause the extinction of other aquatic species, and easily damage the local wetland ecosystem and agricultural ecosystem. The snails are listed as 16 “the most harmful alien species” by the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China. In addition, the devastating epidemic caused by pine wood nematode, pine wood nematode disease, is highly pathogenic. Once it occurs, it is difficult to control it. It is called the cancer of pine trees. It was first found in Nanjing Zhongshan Mausoleum in 1982, and then it occurred in Zhejiang. The direct economic loss caused by this has reached 2.5 billion yuan every year, and the indirect loss has reached 25 billion yuan.
Here, you will also know which animals and plants and their products are prohibited to carry or mail into China through physical display. The number of inbound and outbound passengers in China is increasing year by year, and the types and quantity of goods carried by passengers from different ways are also increasing. The risk of exotic pests passing into China with passengers’ belongings is also increasing due to the wide variety, wide source, no quarantine before entry, scattered flow after entry and lack of supervision of passengers’ belongings. In February 2017, the quarantine dog found a suspicious baggage in the baggage of passengers from Hong Kong inbound flights at Wenzhou Longwan International Airport. After inspection, 19.7kg of raw beef from the United States was hidden in the baggage. Raw beef is prohibited to bring into China.
Another major channel is mail. In the past, mailings were mainly letters and daily necessities. With the development of e-commerce and overseas purchasing, more and more mailings have the attributes of commodities. The imported international mailings gradually show the characteristics of wide source, many batches, many varieties, and difficult supervision. The risk of carrying foreign pests is also increasing. In August 2014, the Xiaoshan Email Supervision Field Office of Zhejiang Bureau intercepted four live dart poison frogs from Hong Kong inbound emails, three of which were green and one was yellow. The poison dart frog is called the most beautiful frog in the world, but it is also one of the most toxic species in the world, and some of them are endangered species. This is the first interception in China.
So, which animals, plants and their products are prohibited from entering or leaving the country? The on-site charts and objects illustrate the problem.
It is reported that the exhibition will last until after the Spring Festival holiday. Interested friends may as well come to this interesting science exhibition to learn.