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Get Involved Join the Conservancy's online community and you can follow Charles' journey in China, explore new places, receive email you want and build your own personalized nature page! Go Deeper The Conservancy is using our conservation approach to help our Chinese partners identify where to work, what to conserve and what strategies will work best.  Keep in Touch Want to write Charles with your own questions about local to global connections between Colorado and China? Where We Work The Nature Conservancy in Colorado The Nature Conservancy in China The Nature Conservancy in Mongolia Colorado Goes Global   Read a Q &A with Frogard Ryan, the Conservancy’s Eastern Colorado Program director, who recently spent two months in Tanzania working with a local land trust to help build a foundation for an effective conservation program.

By Charles Bedford

My first two weeks on the ground in China have been quite an adjustment. I sometimes feel like Joseph Conrad's character Kurtz: plucked from the Congo, equipped with an MBA and sent to the set of the movie Bladerunner. 

Beijing is a far cry from Boulder and truly calls into question whether the human species can manage its footprint on the planet in a sustainable way. The connection (or, perhaps, disconnection) between our economy and our ecology are nowhere on earth more apparent than looking out the window in Beijing.

For a nature-loving Colorado boy, this place is certainly personally challenging (Where's my trail run going to happen? Which canyon can I bike up today? Should I be inhaling this air?)

But, at the same time, there is no society making greater increments of improvement toward a sustainable future than China.  
 
China is the place that will define our collective future, and so it is very exciting to witness and engage with our incredibly talented and dedicated staff here.

This Monday was the first meeting of the Conservancy’s brand new China board of trustees, an august group of businessmen and women. During the gathering, I gave a presentation on best practices for trustees in the U.S.

Based on my very brief exposure to Chinese culture, I’ve noted that that non-profits, volunteerism and civic leadership are relatively new and evolving concepts in China. 

I also believe that the rate of change in China, coupled with the nation’s pride and desire for a sustainable society (they call it "ecological civilization," an ambitious phrase that I particularly like), as well as the pent-up energy of China's new wealthy class to contribute and give back to society are all extraordinarily encouraging indicators that a unique turn toward sustainability in China is just around the corner.  

It was a room of talented, brilliant, charismatic leaders who are acutely aware both of China's environmental issues and of their obligation to solve them.

« China Conservation Journey
China Conservation Journey...Beyond "Paper Parks:" July 22»

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Tamera Bedford (Bejing skyline); Photo © Tamera Bedford (Charles' ride to work); Photo © Renee Mullen/TNC (China conservation planning); Photo © TNC (Frogard Ryan in Tanzania).