Lei Kaibin, Zhang Qian

raylei21@163.com

Despite the heat and midsummer showers, thousands of participants were gathered in Hall 4 of the Shenzhen Convention and ExhibitionCenter for the opening ceremony of the XIX International Botanical Congress yesterday.

President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory letter to the Congress that was read out by Ma Xingrui, governor of the Guangdong Provincial Government, at the opening ceremony. Premier Li Keqiang also sent important instructions.

Wu Weihua, president of the Congress' organizing committee, delivered a speech, asserting that China is one of the countries with the richest botanical diversity and is also the only country that has a continuous and uninterrupted vegetation zone.

“So far, China has established over 2,300 nature reserves and more than 200 botanical gardens, and this has provided great contributions to global efforts in protecting botanical diversity,” said Wu.

Wu, an academician of the ChineseAcademy of Sciences, added that China is now playing a vital role in protecting plant diversity globally. Mankind is now facing tremendous challenges regarding natural resources and the environment, said Wu.

According to him, this year’s Congress, themed “Green Creates Future”, advocates for people to care for plants and care for the future, and is a platform where Chinese botanical practitioners can join hands with their counterparts from all around the world. Chinese scientists anticipate working more with plant scientists from other countries in the future to create a greener world.

Commissioned by the top leaders of GuangdongProvince, Wang Weizhong, Party chief of Shenzhen and also the other president of the Congress' organizing committee, welcomed the guests at the opening ceremony. Wang pledged that Shenzhen would thoroughly implement the key instructions from President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang and insist on the Five Development Concepts, namely Innovation, Harmonization, Green, Openness and Sharing.

Wang said that the city would take the Congress as an opportunity to further promote the protection and study of plants by following international standards. Wang also invited botanical experts from both China and around the world to work with Shenzhen in this field in order to create a better world.

The IBC is held every six years and the first congress was held in 1900. It is the highest-level and most influential global botanical conference. This year’s congress has been jointly organized by the Botanical Society of China and the Shenzhen Municipal Government. It is the first time that the congress has been held in a city in a developing country. This year’s congress set the record for the number of registered participants.

The weeklong gathering of botanical experts from all around the world has also been embedded with Chinese characteristics and Shenzhen marks, including the revised International Code of Nomenclature for Algae, Fungi and Plants called the “Shenzhen Code”, the establishment of the “Shenzhen International Award in Plant Sciences” and a memorial park for IBC 2017 that will be built in the Futian Mangrove Park.