Advanced Field course in Ecology and Conservation - XTBG2012  closed with a research symposium.

The symposium of the Advance Fieldcourse in Ecology and Conservation – XTBG (AFEC-X) 2012 was held at the Conference Hall on Nov 29st, which marked the completion of the six-week intensive training course. Course participants presented the findings from their independent research projects conducted in Bulong Nature Reserve, Mengsong. A panel of judges comprised of Prof CHEN Jin, Prof Ferry SLIK, Assoc Prof Rhett HARRISON, Prof Yann SURGET-GROBA, Dr Uromi GOODALE were impressed by the quality of the work.  Besides the course participants and instructors, more than 30 XTBG staff and students attended the symposium.

The Best Research Project prize went to “Shifting Baselines On a Forest Frontier: Decline Of Indigenous Knowledge About Biodiversity among the Akka people. ” (by Zhang Kai, TeohShuWoan, and Li Jie).

Twenty-five participants from 12 countries attended AFEC-X 2012. They were from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, US, Cameroon and China. Four MSc students from XTBG were among the Chinese students who participated in the course. Building on the success of AFEC-X 2009 ,2010 and 2011, this year’s course extended the training to six weeks to help the participants gain more from the training. It was especially useful to have a longer period in the field site at Mengsong, so that participants could collect solid field data, which led to better results of their research projects. Certainly, the most valuable asset of the field course is the resource staff. Sixteen researchers taught in the course, including Prof Kaoru Kitajima from the University of Florida. Resource staff from XTBG were Prof Chen Jin, Prof Ferry Slik, Prof Eben Goodale, Assoc Prof Rhett Harrison, Assoc Prof Doug Schaefer, Dr Uromi Goodale and Ms Shi Lingling. Other resource staff were Prof Doug Yu (Kunming Institute of Zoology), Dr Bosco Chan (Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden, Hong Kong).

AFEC-X was generously supported by the leaders of XTBG, the Key Laboratory of Tropical Forest Ecology, and the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) and the Department of International Cooperation of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.