Yunhe Centre Becomes a Certified B Corporation

Yunhe Centre is now a Certified B Corporation and one of a small number of B Corps in China connecting education with ecological conservation and community development.

B Corp Certification is a globally recognised and independently verified standard for responsible business. It assesses a company’s social, environmental and governance impact against the B Lab Standards.

For Yunhe, the certification process involved examining how the organisation operates, documenting its policies and practices, and submitting evidence for independent review.

From One Forest School to a Learning Network

Yunhe’s work began with environmental and community initiatives in western China. The team later developed a social enterprise model so that income from education could continue to support ecological work, community participation and new learning programmes.

In a Gyalrong community in Danba, Yunhe transformed a disused farmhouse into the first eco-learning centre of its kind in China’s Tibetan regions.

It later became a base for exploring how nature education, biodiversity conservation and community development could support one another.

Through its education and community-based tourism programmes, Yunhe provides local residents with training and paid opportunities. Residents contribute their knowledge as educators and project partners, while local young people work as ecological educators, programme leaders and centre managers.

From this first school, Yunhe has built three eco-learning centres across protected landscapes in western China, including Giant Panda National Park and the Mount Siguniang–Jiajin Mountains area of the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries UNESCO World Heritage Site.

In Shanghai and Suzhou, Yunhe has also co-founded Fix Planet LAB with DIIS, the Shanghai–Suzhou Institute of Innovation and Creative Design, connecting ecological learning with technology, culture, art and design.

Across this network, more than 10,000 learners from over 20 countries have participated in Yunhe’s programmes.

Through field research, ecological observation and conversations with local communities, they explore biodiversity, climate change, cultural heritage and sustainable development. They turn what they learn into documentaries, exhibitions, research reports, digital tools and sustainable business proposals.

International Recognition

At the NGO Parallel Forum of the UN Biodiversity Conference, CBD COP15, Denglong Yunhe Forest School was presented as one of the 108 “Biodiversity 100+ Global Typical Cases”, selected from projects across seven continents and 26 countries.

The Forest School was also the only case centred on a rural school featured in Creativity 2030, published by the International Centre for Creativity and Sustainable Development under the auspices of UNESCO.

These recognitions highlighted Yunhe’s approach to connecting education with biodiversity conservation, community development and SDG 4: Quality Education.

Becoming a B Corp marks an important step in Yunhe’s development as a social enterprise. We will continue to deepen our work with communities and protected landscapes, strengthen how we measure and manage our impact, and create more opportunities for young people to turn learning into action.