TOKYO: The Japanese government will extend 17 million dollars, or 1.8 billion yen, to developing countries for the protection of biological diversity, Environment Minister Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi said Tuesday.

Yamaguchi made the pledge in a U.N. biodiversity conference in the Chinese city of Kunming, attending the event online.

Specifically, Japan will contribute 1 billion yen over the six years from fiscal 2021 while paying 800 million yen from its biodiversity fund created in 2011.

The money will be used to encourage developing nations to set national strategies for biodiversity and expand their natural reserves.

China is hosting the first part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity mainly online from Monday to Friday. The second part will be held face to face between April and May next year.

The talks are aimed at adopting new global biodiversity targets to replace the ones endorsed at the 2010 biodiversity meeting in Nagoya, central Japan.

Before Yamaguchi’s remarks, Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a video speech. He pledged that China will contribute 1.5 billion yuan to create a new fund to protect biodiversity in developing countries and called on other parties to make contributions, according to China’s official Xinhua news agency.

JIJI Press