The Signing Ceremony for pairing cooperation between Lianhua International Rural Future Community in Quzhou, known as “the first village of international future community” and Matakana Eco-Community in Auckland New Zealand was held on 9 September. SUC Institute allied with both communities in jointly launching the practical cooperation initiative for “implementing SUC Guidelines for Sustainable Communities and promoting the rural sustainable development”.
During the ceremony, Mr. Li Xiang, the Founder of SUC Institute, introduced the application of UN SUC Guidelines in China as well as “the three-year networking” between several benchmark villages in New Zealand and the rural future community pilots in Qujiang since 2019. The Lianhua Community in Qujiang and Matakana Eco-Community in Auckland respectively introduced their basic information. Discussions and exchanges on UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), joint facilitating pilots of SUC Guidelines and follow-up cooperation have been conducted.
Tripartite Online Communication
This tripartite cooperation initiative aims at responding to the “10-Year Framework of Programmes” on UN SDGs, promoting further benchmarking of future village pilots in Zhejiang against international best practices as well as deepening international cooperation. The scope of cooperation covers 7 sustainable development sectors, including “buildings, facilities& service, landscapes, economic productivity, safety, education& recognition and management” of future rural villages. The joint exploration in promoting rural prosperity and urban-rural integrated development, as well as building green, smart and age-friendly villages have been emphasized. The practice models of rural sustainable development in China and New Zealand were collected and shared.
The Tripartite Signing of the Pairing Cooperation Initiative
According to the Founder of SUC Institute-Mr. Li Xiang, it has been more than 3 years for China to apply the UN SUC Guidelines to pilot build the “rural future communities” since March 2019. Quzhou has become a pioneer in exploring the brand new model of building rural future communities led by international standards, as well as the new weathervane leading future innovation and development of traditional rural communities. Starting from this year, Quzhou’s act has started to be promoted in the entire Zhejiang Province. As the consulting agency throughout the entirety of rural future community pilots in Quzhou, the management team of SUC Programme has embarked on promoting this experience model all over the country. Mr. Li Xiang hopes that such international pairing cooperation will contribute to strengthening cooperation between more overseas brilliant rural communities and villages in China, in order to jointly mobilize the realization of SDGs at civic and local levels. In this regard, the Lianhua Community in Qujiang is once again at the forefront among the future villages in the whole province.
Lianhua International Rural Future Community
Wu Liqi, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Agriculture& Rural Affairs Bureau and Director of Rural Revitalization Development Centre of Qujiang District, Quzhou City said, with the theme of common prosperity, Lianhua Community takes the “Integration of Production, Life and Ecosystem” model as a breakthrough, adhering to the “Five Threes” core principle and benchmarking against the SUC international Guidelines. Efforts have been made on building a happy community highlighting Lianhua features, with the integration of village, industry, people and culture via co-building, co-governing and sharing, in order to explore an effective path on developing and building a model district of common prosperity with high quality. In October 2019, Lianhua Community was shortlisted in the first batch of pilot communities of UN SUC Guidelines. In September 2020, Lianhua Community opened as the first pastoral rural future community in China. In March 2021, Lianhua Community released the first indicator system and construction guidelines on international future communities in China, among which several indicators were newly-invented in the country; at the same year, Lianhua Community was shortlisted as the “Common Prosperity Modernization Basic Section Case Study” of Zhejiang Province; at the end of that year, it received “the Environmental Sustainability Project Award” of the 20th LivCom Awards, which achieved “double recognition” at both domestic and international levels in true sense.
Matakana Eco-Community, Auckland, New Zealand
Located in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand, Matakana Eco-Community is a picturesque countryside, with boutique shopping malls, galleries, cafés, restaurants, bars and cinemas. It has a vibrant center producing wine, with numerous vineyards and olive groves. It is also a gateway to the beautiful east coast beaches, resorts and regional parks in Auckland.
According to the introduction from Mr. Damon Birchfield, former CEO of EcoMatters& rep of Matakana Eco-Community& Founder of Deemon Creative in New Zealand, Matakana Community adheres to the sustainable development concept of "listening to the voice of the earth" and the harmonious coexistence of human and nature. The community is highly concerned about food security, biodiversity, new energy and the application of the next-generation technology in the community. Meanwhile, residents are encouraged to engage in community activities and environmental protection actions, so that more people will spontaneously contribute to sustainable development. He also believes that since he was invited to field-visit and guide pilot work of Lianhua Community in Qujiang China in 2019, he has also learned abundant valuable experience from the construction of rural communities in China in the past 3 years. It is hoped that both parties could share more sustainable development practices in the future, in order to mobilize more communities in China and New Zealand to a better future.