Sponsored by China Chapter of the International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-China) and the Landscape Ecology Professional Committee of the Ecological Society of China (ESC-LEPC), presented by Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS-XIEG), Xinjiang Academy of Environmental Protection Science, Xinjiang Ecological Society, Xinjiang Geographical Society and Xinjiang Branch of CAS, the Landscape Ecology (Xinjiang) Forum, which was themed as ‘The Belt & Road Initiative and Green Development’, and outreach sessions of the council/commissioners meeting of IALE-China/ESC-LEPC, were held in Urumqi, Xinjiang Province, from August 9 to10, 2019.

The opening ceremony of the forum was presided over by Prof. ZHOU Huarong from CAS-XIEG. Aniwar Makati, party secretary of Xinjiang Branch of CAS, Dong Yunshe, party secretary of CAS-XIEG, HU Yuanman, chairman of IALE-China and researcher of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of CAS, Prof. ZENG Hui, chairman of ESC-LEPC and vice president of Shenzhen Academy of Peking University, delivered opening remarks respectively.

More than 70 people, including members of the council/committee, lecturers, professors and researchers from over twenty universities and institutions, attended the forum which was themed as ‘the Belt & Road Initiative and Green Development’. The keynote addresses were given by WANG Kelin, researcher from the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture of CAS, LEI Jiaqiang, researcher from CAS-XIEG, Prof. LI Xiuzhen from East China Normal University, Prof. YU Zhenrong from China Agricultural University, Prof. DING Shengyan from Henan University, and LIU Miao, researcher from IAE. Another 14 experts gave section talks.

The ESC-LEPC commissioners meeting was presided over by ZENG Hui, committee chairman and vice president of Shenzhen Academy of Peking University. PENG Jian, secretary-general of the committee, presented a summary report of 2018, summing up the achievements of the committee (e.g. being the host of IALE International Conference and sponsoring the seminar for landscape ecology discipline), and arranged the next-step work of the committee.

The IALE-China council meeting was chaired by HU Yuanman. HU summarized the development of IALE-China, including things about membership, newsletters and journals, the international conferences that members of IALE-China attended, and the preparations for the professional working groups. HU announced that the 10th National Symposium of Landscape Ecology would be held in 2020 in Chang’an University in Xi’an.

During the outreach sessions, attendees held heated discussions and exchanges on how to promote the development of IALE-China & ESC-LEPC and how to further promote teaching and research in the field of landscape ecology.