Will Legend Loves Nature – SDGs, ESG & CSR

I love doing something to help nature and society, not just for now, but for future.

– W.L. Hung, CEO

For some people who especially live in the cities, it’s hard for them to understand the value of nature such as wildlife animals, insects, plants, rivers, oceans, forests, beautiful landscapes, and etc. The fact is, nature underpins our society, economy, lives, and our very existence indeed. We shouldn’t consider that nature is free, and often take it for granted and overexploit it.

To Will Legend, safeguarding the oceans, phytoplankton and ocean (marine) ecosystem is to advocate:

  1. Build Will Legend “Let The Ocean Breathe Museum”, promote ocean conservation, education and popular science
  2. Promote Ocean-Ecosystem Students Mainland Exchange Programme, School Tours, Corporate Sustainability Research Tours
  3. Explore the “Green-blueprint”, build “Ocean-Ecosystem, Ocean-Economy”
  4. Pure Water, Land and Air are important to the sustainable development of humans and nature
  5. Promote the importance of phytoplankton (microalgae) in obtaining oxygen for life on Earth
  6. Promote the importance of phytoplankton (microalgae) in achieving marine biodiversity and marine ecological balance
  7. Promote the importance of phytoplankton (microalgae) in coping with greenhouse gases, carbon absorption, carbon sequestration and carbon neutrality
  8. Promote the protection of phytoplankton to protect the marine food web, including krill populations, thereby protecting the survival of cetaceans (whales)
  9. Support the United Nations’ World Oceans Day on June 8 every year
  10. Promote the cultivation of phytoplankton to raise public awareness of the protection of oceans and marine life
  11. Promote ocean conservation and care for the health of the ocean, and stop ocean pollution, including plastic pollution

Will Legend “Let The Ocean Breathe” Conservation & Education Programme

Safeguard the last piece of pure land on the Earth, let the glacier cool, let the ocean breathe, run through the pulse to wildlife corridor, draw a “Green-blueprint”, build a cradle of ecosystem, increase biodiversity, make human health and prosperity sustainable.

– The Sustainable Conservation Goals of Will Legend

Will Legend “Let The Ocean Breathe” Conservation & Education Programme

Safeguard the last piece of pure land on the Earth, let the glacier cool, let the ocean breathe, run through the pulse to wildlife corridor, draw a “Green-blueprint”, build a cradle of ecosystem, increase biodiversity, make human health and prosperity sustainable

– The Sustainable Conservation Goals of Will Legend

Safeguard the Last Pure Air on Earth

Human survival is inseparable from pure water, land and air. Glaciers conserve clean freshwater resources, and water nourishes land with rich nutrients. Water then follows rivers and merges into oceans to let the ocean breathe. Oceans exhale oxygen, and absorb the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide to let the glacier cool, glaciers maintain a balance of accumulation and ablation, stabilize the planet’s temperatures, enable sustainable water resources, and fosters biodiversity and food crops in urban wildlife corridors. This recurring force of nature ultimately allows the health, peace and prosperity of humans and nature to develop sustainably.

In view of this, the United Nations designated June 8 every year as “World Oceans Day” in the hope of awakening the public to jointly protect the oceans. The ocean covers more than 70% of the Earth, and supports the life of humans and every living thing on the Earth. However, nearly 90% of the large fish in the ocean have disappeared, and nearly 50% of the coral reefs have been destroyed. Humans extract far more from the ocean than they actually need, and more than the forces of nature can repair themselves.

The Ocean Crossing Journey of Small Algae & Big Whale

The story begins with the big whales dive underwater to find food and return to the water surface to breathe. Whales bring minerals up to the ocean surface through their vertical movement, called the “Whale Pump”. From time to time, the big whales migrate their feeding and breeding grounds across oceans, called the “Whale Conveyor Belt”. For every journey, they always bring with their good friends – the tiny algae, or more precisely, the microalgae (Phytoplankton). It turns out that whales’ waste products contain substances — especially iron and nitrogen, the nutrients which phytoplankton need for growing. The is how the tiny algae work with big whales and produce oxygen to the atmosphere.

Safeguard The Ocean, Let the Ocean Breathe

The ocean produces oxygen through the phytoplankton (microalgae). These single-celled photosynthetic marine algae live near the surface. Microalgae are generally very good at turning carbon dioxide, nutrients and water into proteins, fats and carbohydrates through photosynthesis. They provide food for a wide range of sea creatures in a balanced ecosystem. Just like plants, they consume carbon dioxide, make carbohydrates using light energy, produce at least 50% of the planet’s oxygen.

Besides, these microscopic creatures absorb about 37 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), an estimated 40 percent of all CO2 produced. This is equivalent to the amount of CO2 absorbed by 1.70 trillion trees — four Amazon forests’ worth. Whales accumulate carbon in their bodies during their long lives, each great whale sequesters 33 tons of CO2 on average. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking that carbon out of the atmosphere for centuries. A tree, meanwhile, absorbs only up to 48 pounds of CO2 approximately a year*. Therefore, phytoplankton and whales are the excellent examples of carbon sequestration.

*Source: IMF – Nature’s Solution to Climate Change

Let The Ocean Breathe, Cool The Earth Down

The increasing emissions of greenhouse gases caused by human activities have led to global warming. The situation is like covering the Earth with a quilt, preventing heat from being reflected into space, causing the Earth’s temperature to rise. Currently, we are experiencing unprecedented rapid climate warming due to human activities, such as the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide produced by burning fossil fuels. As the temperature rises, the Earth also begins to suffer from “illness”. The reason is that everything, and all living things on the Earth are closely intertwined with each other. Once nature loses its ability to balance, humans will not be able to survive alone.

Will Legend advocates the use of green energy as a “Greenhouse Cooling Patch” to cool the Earth. Effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions through clean energy such as solar power, wind power and hydropower. At the same time, we support the “Belt and Road Initiative” to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of international energy cooperation, and cooperate with especially developing countries, to carry out solar, wind and hydropower projects to increase the proportion of renewable energy power generation, and help the world reduce carbon emissions faster to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, and practice the sustainable development of humans and nature.

As global warming caused by climate change becomes more severe, Will Legend believes that programmes organized and led at the social and community levels can be implemented more effectively. Absorbing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, adopting green energy to address climate change, and achieve long-term solutions through glacier, land and ocean conservation and education programmes are vital to humans and ecosystems. The essence behind the various sustainable development activities created by Will Legend is to make the public, and our next generations pay more attention to the “health” of the Earth from the perspective of education and popular science.

“South China Sea – 350 The Blue Ocean Journey”, Ocean Ecology National Nature Reserve

Will Legend created the “Let the Ocean Breathe” Conservation & Education Programme, which focuses on protecting the ocean (especially the South China Sea), promoting the importance of protecting the ocean and marine ecology, and releasing clean air from the ocean to humans and creatures. Will Legend has received support from Guangdong Nanpeng Islands Ocean Ecology National Nature Reserve Administration (Nanpeng Marine Reserve) Management Bureau to carry out research trips, educational tours, study tours, and Student Mainland Exchange Programme in the reserve to implement the “Belt and Road Initiative” sustainable development goals for humans and nature.

The Nanpeng Islands Nature Reserve has a total sea area of 35,679 hectares. It is located in the southeast of Nan’ao Island, at the intersection of the three provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. It is close to the Tropic of Cancer and is the transition zone from the tropics to the subtropics. It has obvious geographical advantages, unique hydrological and climatic conditions, peculiar seabed topography and rich biodiversity. It was included in the list of internationally important wetlands in 2015 and is known as “A Typical Treasure House of Marine Biological Resources in The South China Sea” and “A Living Natural Museum in The Northern South China Sea”. It has a marine ecological exhibition hall, a migratory bird nature reserve, and an island national forest. There are as many as 1,308 species of marine life distributed in the reserve, including 314 species of marine vertebrates. There are 17 species of national Class I and II protected animals, and 8 species of key protected animals in Guangdong Province. It is also a migratory and habitat area for many rare, and protected aquatic wildlife such as Chinese white dolphins, finless porpoises, nautiluses, sea turtles, yellow-lipped fish, seahorses, staghorn corals and rose corals.

Will Legend, and the Nanpeng Marine Reserve Management Bureau encourage the public to work together to stop over-consumption of marine resources. Instead, we should start from the source, cultivating phytoplankton to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, exhale oxygen to the Earth, and provide an important foundation for the marine food web. At the same time, humans should also learn to protect the environment, reduce carbon emissions, catch fish appropriately, reduce ocean pollution, restore marine biodiversity and marine ecosystems, and let the ocean breathe.

Will Legend – A Journey to Safeguard Oceans

China’s four main sea areas include the Bohai Sea, the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea. These sea areas are located around China, and belong to China’s offshore waters, with a total area of approximately more than 4.7 million square kilometers. Among them, the South China Sea is located in the south of mainland China. It is connected to the Pacific Ocean in the east and the Indian Ocean in the west through narrow straits or waterways. It is a semi-enclosed sea that runs from northeast to southwest, spanning about 2,000 kilometers from north to south and about 1,000 kilometers from east to west, with a total area of approximately 3.5 million square kilometers.

Will Legend advocates protecting the ocean from a social and community level and creates the “South China Sea – 350 Blue Ocean Journey”, which connects the government, corporates, organizations, schools and the Nanpeng Islands National Nature Reserve Management Bureau, and leads the public to experience it in a popular way to embark on a marine conservation journey. At the same time, we promote the protection of oceans, microalgae and marine ecology through “Education and Promotion” work, so that the public, especially the next generations, will understand that protecting the ocean is equivalent to protecting human beings’ most precious “pure” air, nature and the Earth.

“South China Sea – 350 Blue Ocean Journey” chooses Nanpeng Islands National Nature Reserve – close to the southeast of Nan’ao Island above the Tropic of Cancer. It actively promotes green and clean energy, marine biodiversity and low-carbon life, integrating blue Marine ecological farming practices “Supporting Social and Economic Development with Marine Ecology, and Giving Back to Marine Conservation with Economic Outcomes.” That is, while improving economic and social development, we practice peaceful and balanced coexistence with nature, and seek peace and prosperity for mankind now and in the future, healthy and prosperous sustainable development to achieve “Coexisting of Humans and Nature”.