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On October 27, the Second National Ancient Tree Health and Ancient Tree Culture Academic Forum was held at BUA. Zhao Feng, Secretary of BUA’s Party Committee, delivered the welcoming speech, and Zhang Deqiang, Standing Committee Member of the Party Committee and Vice President of BUA, presided over the opening ceremony. Yin Weilun, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and former President of Beijing Forestry University, and Professor Zhao Liangping, former head of the Department of Ecological Protection and Restoration of the National Forestry and Grassland Administration and Vice Chairman of China Flower Association, gave keynote speeches. The forum brought together more than 220 participants, including experts and scholars from nationwide, professionals from enterprises and public institutions dedicated to ancient tree research and related technology promotion, teachers and students, and media representatives.

Zhao Feng noted that in recent years, BUA has thoroughly learned and implemented the guiding principles of Xi Jinping’s important instructions on ancient tree protection. With strong support from the National Forestry and Grassland Administration, Beijing Municipal Education Commission and the Education Work Committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, Beijing Municipal Forestry and Parks Bureau and relevant institutions, BUA has optimized specialty arrangement, set up the Specialty of Forestry (Ancient Tree Protection), established the class for master degree of “ancient tree protection and restoration”, and launched the first scholarship program on ancient tree research at home jointly with Beijing Green Foundation. BUA has stepped up the curriculum reform, compiling China’s first set of teaching materials about ancient trees. BUA has also intensified organized scientific research, inaugurated the National Forestry and Grassland Ancient Tree Health and Ancient Tree Culture Engineering Technology Research Center as approved, and built an expert pool comprising 34 famous industrial experts at home and abroad. BUA has carried out in-depth and systematic research and practice related to the protection of ancient and precious trees, and has made remarkable results in terms of basic research, applied research, and the scientific popularization and cultural promotion for ancient trees. Zhao expressed hope that the forum will help build the consensus on “Protecting Ancient and Precious Trees and Enjoying Ancient Tree Culture”, and pool resources and strengths from all sectors of society, so as to uncover the secrets about ancient trees, explore the mechanism for collaboration and innovation on ancient tree protection, and effectively advance the high-quality development of the ancient tree health and culture cause.

In keynote speeches, Yin Weilun addressed four issues, i.e. why tree medicine is needed in modern forestry, why the transformation of tree medicine is required for forest protection, how to build the discipline of tree medicine, and how tree medicine helps increase values of forestry. Zhao Liangping dealt with six issues, i.e. ways to determine the age of ancient trees, in-situ conservation of ancient trees, strengthening diagnosis of the health conditions of ancient trees, scientific protection and proper protection, protection and reasonable utilization of ancient trees, and regulating the ancient and precious tree protection market and access system.

Centering on the theme of the forum, seven experts, scholars and enterprise representatives specializing in ancient tree protection and restoration from nationwide delivered wonderful and in-depth speeches focused on the management of ancient tree health and associated challenges, technologies for wise protection of ancient and precious trees, age identification and protection of ancient camphor trees, experience in preparing ancient and precious tree protection plans, integration and utilization of big data about ancient tree multi-omics, research and practice of ancient and precious tree protection in Guangdong Province, ancient cypress protection in Cuiyunlang and wise management cases.

At the opening ceremony, attending leaders presented certificates of honor to the recipients of BUA Ancient Tree Scholarship and awardees in the works' solicitation campaign themed “My Story with Ancient Trees”.