Organized by Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Horhenheim, Germany, Sino-German Research Co-operation “Living Landscapes China” LILAC Symposium has been underway at XTBG from October 11-14, 2010.
Themed with “Land use in the Greater Mekong Subregion – A Challenge for Society, Economy and Biodiversity”, the symposium includes 5 keynote presentations and 27 oral presentations covering such diverse fields as biodiversity and land use, socio-economy, land-use change modelling. Over 80 participants from 8 countries attended this symposium.
Prof. LI Yongmei, from Yunnan Agricultural University, presided over the opening ceremony. Prof. LI Qingjun, deputy director of XTBG, delivered a welcome speech. Prof. Joachim SAUERBORN, from University of Hohenheim, introduced the background of the LILAC project. Mr. LI Gang, Governor Assistant of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, expressed his warm congratulations to the symposium.
On October 14, participants took part in post-conference excursion to the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve.
The 3-year Sino-German research cooperation project “LILAC” is financially supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, China and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Germany.
The sustainability of development and land-use change processes requires the understanding of the underlying driving forces as well as the consequences of specific decisions. It has been, therefore, the objective of this research co-operation to analyse social, economic, and ecological framework conditions in Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve and the possible consequences of land-use change. Based on this analysis the researchers developed a GIS-based scenario tool for modelling development trajectories on regional scale. Such a modelling tool supports the assessment of land-use change with regard to their social, economic, hydrological and ecological implications. The overall framework can be used in decision making processes affecting land-use patterns.
