The 8th Shanghai International Nature Conservation Festival kicks off on Thursday, featuring a variety of environmental protection and science popularization activities both online and in person.

As a highlight of the festival, a lecture with experts from China and abroad to share insights into the preservation of nature will be held on Thursday online, inspiring the public to think about biodiversity and eco-friendly development.

Two roundtable conferences are scheduled on October 29 and 30 in the Pudong New Area and Chongming District, inviting experts to discuss "renewing and maintaining nature and ecological systems, fueling green and low-carbon development via clean-energy technologies, and the industrial development of a world-class ecological island."

During the festival, the public can walk into the city's science education and environmental protection venues, and youth can participate in various ecological activities such as wildlife and nature observation.

Botanical gardens and forest parks in the city will host a number of science education activities.

A photo exhibition with 100 photos selected from some 2,600 works on display will run from October 27 through November 4 online.

As part of the festival, a photography competition encourages the public to capture nature and low-carbon activities around them and share photos and videos on digital media platforms.

At the same time, 10 nature and science films will be screened at the Shanghai Science and Technology Museum, the Shanghai Natural History Museum and the Shanghai Astronomy Museum.

The festival will run through November 4.

The city's per capita greenery space amounted to 8.8 square meters by the end of last year and it featured 532 parks at that time, compared with just 153 in 2011.

A total of 22 major habitats for wildlife have been established in the city as well.

"Shanghai is creating a 'yearning ecological city' and a 'city inside parks,' and its ecological development has yielded fruitful results over the past decade," said Yang Wenyue, director of the science and technology information department of the Shanghai Greenery and Public Sanitation Bureau, on Tuesday.