High praise for burgeoning growth

By Yang Cheng and Li Yingqing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-09 07:43

Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) now has a leading international role in the study of tropical biology that impresses W John Kress, a scientist with the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution in the US, one of the world's largest museums and research organizations.

"Especially with the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the largest professional society devoted to understanding and protecting the biodiversity of the topics in the world, the XTBG has played a significant part and made great progress in cooperation of other such organizations," he noted.

Dr Chen Jin, Dr Cao Min and Dr Li Qingjun with the XTBG have made important contributions to the journal Biotropica, a premier research publication.

The garden hosted the 2006 ATBC annual meeting that attracted tropical biologists from around the world. Chen was also elected president of the Asian-Pacific chapter of the ATBC.

"Theses are all hardly trivial endeavors and reflect the important role that XTBG is playing in the international scientific arena," the Smithsonian scientist said.

Kress, who has conducted research with XTBG since 1995 and has served the garden as a foreign consultancy expert since 2003 also lauded other developments.

"In the taxonomy of tropical plants, one of its recognized successes is the digitization of images of the entire herbarium at the garden, making these specimens accessible to researchers anywhere around the world," he said.

The garden's efforts in tropical forest ecology include noted projects on the evolutionary ecology of pollination and dispersal of gingers and figs.

XTBG recently established a new 20-hectare forest dynamics plot as part of the Center for Tropical Forest Science's worldwide consortium.

"I am equally impressed with the newly established program in forest genomics, headed up by Dr Chuck Cannon, which will take the gardens in new directions of understanding on the evolution of tropical forest communities," Kress stressed.

New efforts in development of biofuels through genetic engineering and breeding programs for the woody, oil-bearing jatropha plant and oil palms as alternative fuel sources promise to be an important new sources of innovation and funding for the garden.

XTBG has evolved from a garden in a changing forest to a horticultural showcase of tropical plants and a world leader in education, research and conservation of tropical plant species and habitats, Kress said.

"Through various programs in horticulture, science and outreach, especially during the last decade, XTBG has grown to be a recognized leader in China and the world in the field of tropical botany and ecology," the scientist pointed out.

(China Daily 07/09/2009 page7)