Director-General meets with China’s Ecology and Environment Minister

22 November 2019, Beijing - FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu met with Li Ganjie, China’s Minister for Ecology and Environment, during his visit to the Chinese capital.

The minister briefed the Director-General and his delegation on the mandate and vision of his ministry, highlighting innovative practices such as the Ecological Red Line strategy, which aims to balance economic growth with ecological and environmental protection measures in determining land-use policies.

The Director-General emphasized that the ecological environment lies at the heart of FAO’s mandate, as food security extends beyond the narrow connotation of adequate agricultural production and relies on the development of an entire food system embedded in its social, economic and natural settings. Ecology-related themes have taken up the lion’s share of FAO’s resource mobilization since Qu assumed leadership of the Organization on 1 August 2019.

The minister agreed that the ecological environment, food and nutrition are all closely intertwined with each other, and that as a result, multi-sector cooperation is needed to contribute to the sustainable development of humankind.