The 2018 International Conference on Protective Forests—Commemorate the 40th anniversary of Three-North Afforestation Program (ICPF 2018) was held from August 1st to 4th, 2018, in Shenyang, China. More than 230 experts and scholars in protective forest research from the United States, Britain, Japan, Canada, China and other countries, as well as the builders and managers of the Three-North Afforestation Program attended the conference.

The ICPF 2018 was organized by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the State Forestry and grassland Administration of China (SFGA) as well as the International Union of Forestry Research Organization (IUFRO). It was hosted by the Institute of Applied Ecology, CAS and the National Bureau to Construct Protection Forest in Northwest North & Northeast Regions of China, SFA.

The scope of the ICPF 2018 covered all fields of the protective forest science. During the conference, the attendees mainly discussed the development of protective forests worldwide, the effects of global climate change on protective forests and the ways to keep stability and sustainability of this type of forest. The experts summarized the achievements of the Three-North Afforestation Program in China and pointed out the issues that the program faced throughout the forty years of construction. The ICPF 2018 provided the decision-makers and forest managers with scientific guidelines to afforest the ‘Three-North’ region.

The ICPF 2018 lasted for 4 days and mainly included academic exchanges on protective forestry, the 40th anniversary exhibition of the Three-North Afforestation Program and field trips to sites of protective forests.

The opening ceremony on August 2 was hosted by WANG Gaofeng (G. Geoff Wang), co-chair of the ICPF 2018 organizing committee and Professor of Clemson University. ZHU Jiaojun, co-chair of the ICPF 2018 organizing committee and the director of IAE firstly welcomed the delegates on behalf of the ICPF 2018 committee. Then he keynoted the ICPF 2018 and expected (that) the successful convening of this conference would promote the development of protective forest science and the academic exchanges worldwide in this field.

On behalf of the organizers, FANG Yunting, deputy director of IAE, gave a welcome speech. He briefly reviewed the outstanding achievements of the Institute in the theory and technology of protective forestry. He stated that protective forestry is an important research area of IAE and the institute has become the leading institute in this field at home and abroad. He believed that the ICPF 2018 would be a milestone in the protective forest studies.

DUAN Xiaonan, director of the Department of Earth Sciences, Frontier Science and Education Bureau, CAS, delivered a speech on behalf of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He spoke highly of the cooperation between SFGA and CAS in forestry and in ‘the construction of ecological civilization’.

On behalf of SFGA, WANG Chunfeng, deputy director of the Department of International Cooperation of SFGA gave a brief introduction on the achievements of the Three-North Afforestation Program in the past 40 years, and stated that SFGA would make greater efforts to protect and restore ecosystems and promote the development of the national program in the next 30 years.

CHEN Jie, member of the Party Committee of Liaoning Provincial Forestry Department, introduced the basic situation of the Three-North Afforestation Program in Liaoning Province. JI Lanzhu, party secretary and associate dean of Shenyang Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, affirmed the irreplaceability of IAE on protective forest science. He believed that the successful convening of this conference would promote the further development of IAE in this research field.

At the opening ceremony, the following invited talks were given:

l Wu Aiming (Deputy Director of the Three-North Afforestation Bureau, SFGA) “Practice of Protective Forest Construction in China – the Three-North Afforestation program”,

l Professor Shibu JOSE (the University of Missouri) “Overview of the 21st century Protective Forests in Temperate Zone”,

l Professor John KORT (the Department of Agriculture and Agri-Food of Canada) " Economics of Farmland Protective Forests in Canada",

l Professor Eugene S. TAKLE (Iowa State University) "Microclimate Simulation and Measurement of Farmland Protective Forests: Progress and Challenge", and

l Professor ZHU Jiaojun "Forty-year evaluation of the Three-North Afforestation Program: Achievements, Problems and recommendations”.

On August 3, the following invited talks were given:

l Professor ZHU Qingke (Beijing Forestry University) “Near-Natural Construction of Water & Soil Conservation Forests on the Loess Plateau”,

l Professor Bill Mason (the Forestry Research Institute of the British Forestry Commission) “Vegetation Restoration in the Oceanic Climate Countries – A Century of Practice in the UK",

l Professor HE Hongshi (the University of Missouri and Northeastern Normal University), "How does afforestation management in the central United States restore short-leaved pine and oak forests on landscape scales?”, 

l Prof. CAI Guojun (Gansu Provincial Academy of Forestry) "Gansu Loess Plateau Protective Forests: Construction Model and Technology",

l Prof. GUO Zhongsheng (the Institute of Water & Soil Conservation, CAS) “Sustainable Development of Protective Forests”,

l GAO Sen (Director of the Three-North Afforestation Bureau, SFGA) “Afforestation Quality of the Three North Project”.

l Finally, ZHU Jiaojun made a closing speech and appreciated all the participants.

A protective forest is generally defined as the forest that is managed for providing protective functions to landowners and the society. Protective forests have been constructed worldwide to prevent or reduce the damage from natural disasters (e.g., desertification, water and soil loss, and extreme wind), to protect the infrastructures, to promote the regional economic and environmental well-being, and to maintain the regional ecological balance. China has the largest amount of protective forests in the world, largely due to the contribution from the Three-North Afforestation Program initiated in 1978 in the west of Northeast China, the north of North China and Northwest China.