Status and Prospect of Ecological Environment in the Belt and Road Initiative Regions

Xixi Du; Yi Qin; Chunbo Huang

doi:10.3390/ijerph192417091

Status and Prospect of Ecological Environment in the Belt and Road Initiative Regions

Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022 Dec 19;19(24):17091. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192417091.

Authors

Xixi Du^{1

2}, Yi Qin^{1

2}, Chunbo Huang^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ School of Foreign Languages, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
² Center for Turkmenistan Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Geography and Information Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China.

Abstract

With the widespread recognition and in-depth implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), especially in the context of global climate change, the ecological environment of Belt and Road Initiative regions might be confronted with pressures and challenges with rapid socioeconomic development. In response to those potential environmental challenges, China has put forward Green BRI and enriched the new Silk Road with more environmental connotations, aiming to reduce the conflict between economic development and eco-environmental protection. Currently, there is a lack of systematic and holistic research on eco-environmental issues in BRI regions. In addition, feasible solutions to enhance BRI's contribution to the eco-environment remain insufficient. Having systematically reviewed the relevant literature on the eco-environment in BRI regions, we found that most regions along the BRI routes are in sensitive zones of climate and geological change, with fragile eco-environments and strong vulnerability to climate change, natural disasters and human activities. The main eco-environment status of the BRI regions is as follows: (1) The total water resources in BRI regions account for only 36% of the global total, with uneven distribution and complex spatial precipitation, posing higher pressure on water security. (2) Vegetation varies significantly from region to region. The vegetation in South Asia is the richest, with its mean annual NDVI exceeding 0.7. The NDVI in East Europe, Russia and South China are between 0.4 and 0.7, and that in Central Asia and West Asia are below 0.2. (3) The BRI regions are abundantly blessed with natural resources, with the total recoverable oil reserves, natural gas reserves and the total mining area reaching 66%, 65.5% and 42.31% of the world's total, respectively, but severe overexploitation and overconsumption of those resources degrade their eco-environment. Accordingly, future research directions, such as target on integrated, interdisciplinary and coordinated studies on eco-environmental issues in BRI regions, are proposed in this paper to achieve optimization of BRI's contribution to eco-environment protection in BRI regions.

Keywords: eco-environmental protection; ecological environment; green development; the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Conservation of Natural Resources*
Economic Development
Humans
Natural Disasters*
Russia

Grants and funding

This research was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 42001218), the General Project of Hubei Social Science Fund (Grant number 2021211, Grant number HBSK2022YB357), the Postgraduate English Curriculum Research Fund of CUG Graduate School (No. YSZ2021409) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan).