The National Botanical Gardens Conference & Academic Meeting 2008 was held in Guiyang, Guizhou during Oct.15-19. Approximately 220 invitees attended, representing Botanical Gardens nationwide, including Taiwan and Hong Kong. Prof. Chen Jin, director of XTBG, headed up a 9-person group to present at the conference.

   The conference was themed around conserving plant diversity, botanical gardens and the practice of conservation, public education, sustainable development, etc. 5 XTBG participants made presentations. Dr. Chen Jin’s presentation was entitled “Evaluation on the ex situ conservation of endemic plant species in Chinese botanical gardens”. Prof. Xu Zaifu presented “Return: restitution in nature of ex situ ((restoration of plants to natural environment)” to the attendees. The two lectures aroused interest and positive response among the participants.

The Guizhou Declaration was released from the meeting. The Annual Meeting 2009 is to be held in Nanning, Guangxi, hosted by Guangxi Medicinal Botanical Garden.