Biodiversity Conservation Under the Belt and Road Initiative: International Practices, Trend Analysis, and China’s Response

While deepening regional connectivity, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) poses formidable challenges to conservation of biodiversity in ecologically sensitive areas along its routes. It makes stronger international cooperation on biodiversity conservation imperative for participating countries. However, the existing literature predominantly focuses on single-country institutional analyses or project-level ecological impact assessments, leaving a gap in the integrated governance framework that bridges “internal institutional supply” and “external international cooperation”. The study finds that recent practices along BRI routes show concentrated progress in several key areas: refining targeted legislation in key sectors, integrating local ecosystem characteristics into conservation approaches, and safeguarding the rights and interests of local communities through diverse channels. By systematically classifying the practices of six representative case studies—including the Mombasa–Nairobi Railway and the Karot Hydropower Plant—the evolving trends for biodiversity conservation under the BRI have been revealed: diversification of conservation subjects and digitalization of conservation methods. To balance the supply and demand of the system, the institutional innovation of China’s biodiversity conservation could be realized through dual-dimensional optimization (internal institutional design + external international cooperation). The specific proposals are as follows: (1) Strengthening domestic institutional rigidity: At the top-level design stage, this entails advancing sui generis legislation for biodiversity conservation, encouraging joint rulemaking by local governments and line ministries, and leveraging the supplementary and constraining effects of treaty-based and contractual standards. At the implementation stage, introducing the community co-management model requires improving public participation mechanisms, such as diversified communication channels. (2) Activating the flexibility of international cooperation, establishing BRI Ecological Cloud digital platforms for data sharing and dynamic monitoring, and joint conservation efforts should be conducted through cross-border projects with BRI partner countries, harnessing project resources to achieve mutual benefits in global biodiversity governance to promote the transnational legal process of biodiversity conservation and global ecological civilization construction.