Prof. Woo Norman, Chairman of Department of Biology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong headed up a 17-person professors delegation to visit XTBG on August 7.Dr. Chen Jin met with the CUHK professors.

On the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the Botanical Society of China (BSC) held its 14th plenary conference & 75th annual meeting in Lanzhou from July 13 to 15. Prof. Dr. Cao Min, deputy director of XTBG, headed up a 14-person group to actively participate in the academic meeting.

Dr. Nicholas J. Gotelli delivered four academic lectures at XTBG, and exchanged ideas on ecological research with scientists here.

Prof. Dr. Gary Hartshorn, president and CEO of World Forestry Center, visited XTBG on invitation. He delivered a lecture and made acdemic exchanges with XTBG.

Mr. Pham Van Quy, vice president of the Vietnamese Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), headed up an 8-person delegation to XTBG on May 9. Dr. Chen Jin, Dr. Cao Min, and Dr. Hu Huabin gave a warm reception to the guests.

On invitation, Prof. Dr. S. Joseph Wright and his wife paid a visit to XTBG, having academic exchanges and field investigation tours.

Prof. Chen Jin and Prof. Zhu Hua were invited to sit on the editorial board of Tropical Conservation Science. Their roles are both associate editors. Prof. Zhu Hua has published an article entitled “Advances in biogeography of the tropical rain forest in southern Yunnan, southwestern China” in its inaugural issue.

After official release of China’s Strategy for Plant Conservation, the BGCI’s China Programme Office was unveiled on Feb.26.

In addition to activities at XTBG, the students visited the extraordinary, monodominat Parashorea forest in Bubeng, where the CTFS and XTBG have recently established a 20 ha forest dynamics plot, and spent 10 days at the montane forest fieldstation at Ailoshan. The fieldcourse was co-ordinated by STRI Associate Researcher Rhett Harrison.

The CTFS-AA International Field Biology Course is an annual, graduate- level field course in tropical forest biology run by the Center for Tropical Forest Science – Arnold Arboretum Asia Program (CTFS-AA) in collaboration with institutional partners in South and Southeast Asia. The CTFS-AA International Field Biology Course 2007 is hosted by and held at XTBG, which lasts from September 2 to October 13. It is the seventh such course organized by CTFS-AA.

During July 27-31, a 28-person delegation (including educator from America, South Africa, and China) of the Global Environmental Teaching 2007 visited XTBG. The visit was aimed at exchanging experiences in environmental education and increasing the public awareness of protecting the earth.

The annual meeting 2007 of the Association of Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC) was held in Morelia, Mexico during July15-19, with the theme “Linking tropical biology with human dimensions”.XTBG scientists participated in the meeting. During the sessions, Dr. Cao Min attended the board meeting of ATBC, Dr. Li Qingjun took part in work meeting of the Editorial Board of Biotropica.