Researchers from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their collaborators revealed that plant community turnover and nematode body width play fundamental roles in shaping soil nematode diversity across different spatial scales. Their findings highlight that protecting the variety of plant species is essential for preserving nematode diversity and that a nematode’s body width largely determines how it spreads across the environment.

At the invitation of the Lao Institute of Biotechnology and Ecology (BEI), a team of researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) conducted a 24-day botanical expedition in southern Laos from July 2-25. They investigated plant diversity and advanced regular bilateral cooperation with Lao research institutions. They also gave a special training session for BEI researchers on the identification of common tropical plant families, enhancing local capacity in field botany.

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and their international collaborators offer a new framework for understanding how mountain biodiversity arises and why different ranges follow distinct evolutionary paths. Their findings reveal that a synergistic combination of deciduousness and small densely veined (SDV) leaves, together with the timing of mountain uplift and climate change, explains why the Hengduan–Himalayas host far more species of barberry (Berberis) than the Andes.

Experts from China and abroad gathered on Sunday in Xishuangbanna Dai autonomous prefecture, Yunnan province, to exchange insights on advancing tropical biodiversity conservation. Their meeting will conclude on Friday.

More than 700 scientists, conservation practitioners, and early-career researchers from over 60 countries and regions assembled on June 28 in Xishuangbanna, a biodiverse prefecture in southwest China known for its tropical rainforests, for the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC).

Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and South China Botanical Garden (XTBG) have recently completed their 27-day joint botanical expedition to Laos. They conducted systematic field surveys in multiple nature reserves across Houaphan and Khammouane provinces, marking the first such collaborative biodiversity mission of 2026.

Mr. Sam Inn, Secretary of State for the Ministry of Environment of Cambodia, headed up a delegation to Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) on May 29. The visit was for a sino-Cambodian workshop on biodiversity conservation and orchid center cooperation.

Prof. FAN Zexin, deputy director of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), headed up a delegation to Kasetsart University in Thailand from April 20 -24. The visit was aimed to deepen cooperation in research projects, facility sharing, academic exchange, and personnel training between the two sides.

Prof. Xing Yaowu, director of Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), headed up a delegation to the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) from March 25-30. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the two sides.