Chinese and Vietnamese researchers have discovered Mucuna fossil pods dating back approximately 10 million years in northern Vietnam, according to a recent research article published in the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology.

Cao Min is a Professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He is also PI of two ForestGEO plots in China: Xishuangbanna and Ailaoshan. He decided to set up a 1-ha plot in Xishuangbanna after visiting the 50-ha Pasoh FDP in Malaysia in the 1990s, and 13 years later, Min established a second plot in Xishuangbanna, this one covering an area of 20-ha and subscribing to ForestGEO’s census protocols. The Xishuangbanna plot is also a member of the Chinese Forest Biodiversity Network (CForBio). Collectively, Xishungbanna and Ailaoshan offer opportunities for methods training, MSc and PhD work, and postdoctoral research.

Ex-situ conservation enables wildlife conservationists to offer more targeted protection to critically endangered species, or species living outside the existing natural reserves, said Chen Jin, a researcher with the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

AHIMSA CAMPOS-ARCEIZ Researcher, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences "We need to increase elephant habitat, particularly elephant habitat without much contact with people. In that sense, China is now planning a new national park. I think that's a very good thing."

Different forest types usually have different abilities to act as carbon sinks, said Zhang Yiping, a professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to his research in southwest China's Yunnan Province, the forests in Yunnan were all carbon sinks. However, the forest carbon sink (net ecosystem productivity, NEP) of the Xishuangbanna tropical rainforest ecosystem amounted to 1.25 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year, while that of the Ailaoshan subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest ecosystem was 7.02 tonnes of carbon per hectare per year.

The Victoria ‘Dreamer,’ which was bred by senior experimentalist Wu Fuchuan and engineer Liu Meng with the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), is the first water lily cultivar certified by an international authority.

In May 2019, scientists found an Asian black-webbed treefrog (Rhacophorus kio) resting at the canopy of a 62-meter-tall Parashorea chinensis tree in Mengla area of Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province. Five months later, another Asian black-webbed treefrog was found on an epiphyte (Microsorum punctatum) at the crown of a smaller Parashorea chinensis tree in the same region.