Environmental education is one of the main missions of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG). As the only one 5A national tourist attraction in Xishuangbanna, it attracts a considerable number of tourists with anxious desire to capture knowledge on plants and animals. For spreading knowledge of plants and environment, a 50-people team of tour guides have been playing an important role.

The tour guides are mainly recruited from local villages, most of whom are Dai nationality. They are trying to disseminate knowledge of plants and biodiversity conservation to tourists from home and abroad. We’d like to introduce one of the Dai tour guides as their model.

Yi Jianfang is one of the experienced and best tour guides of XTBG. Many tourists may say “Excuse me, can we have Ms. Y Jianfang as our tour guide?” She makes friends with tourists and some even re-visit the garden for the sake of her. She can not only identify some plants of interest bur also tell stories about them: why it is here, who planted it, its traditional uses, etc.

   Yi Jianfang has been introduced as a pioneer in public engagement in Roots of BGCI. For more information, please refer to Roots, 12 (2).