An interdisciplinary and international hybrid workshop on Regional Partnerships for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development discussed ways to mainstream responsible science policies and best practices across the Tropical East Asia region on February, 2022. 

The hybrid workshop, Regional Partnerships for Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development, was jointly organized by the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), International Bamboo and Rattan Organization, Southeast Asia Biodiversity Research Institute, International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development and the Centre for Mountain Futures. 

Tropical East Asia is home to up to 25% of global terrestrial biodiversity and will play a critical role in meeting the Sustainable Development Goals, Paris Agreement indicators and benchmarks of the Fifteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. 

Prof. Cao Jinghua, executive director of the Secretariat of Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO), called for urgent joint efforts to promote biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. 

Prof. Quan Ruichang, deputy director of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), spoke on the importance of sustainable development in balancing biodiversity conservation and social economic development. Biodiversity is the basis for development. 

The participants called for synergistic actions spanning national borders for two specific Sustainable Development Goals: 2.3, to double the agricultural productivity and incomes of smallholders by 2030; and 3.4, to reduce by one-third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases. 

Speakers lauded inter-organizational alliances as important frameworks for delivering healthier lifestyles to rural communities and stabilizing the planetary ecosystem under the Paris Agreement. 

Participants at XTBG.

Speakers online.