On July 10-13, 2021, the 9th International Congress of the East Asian Federation of Ecological Societies (EAFES) was held in Hohhot (Huhehaote). More than 450 experts from China, South Korea, Japan and other countries attended the conference through offline or online mode. The conference was organised by the EAFES and hosted by the Chinese Ecological Society and the Inner Mongolia Academy of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Sciences.

The EAFES International Congress is held every two years and has become a well-known conference for East Asian ecologists to conduct academic exchange and promote mutual cooperation.

The 9th EAFES International Congress was themed as "Harmonizing People and Nature for Better Asia." It had 8 plenary speeches, corresponding to 8 thematic workshops: 1) East Asia Biodiversity Conservation and Protected Areas; 2) Indigenous Culture and Nature Conservation: Future Heritage; 3) East Asia Forest Degradation and Ecological Restoration; 4) Application of the State-of-the-art Telemetry Technology in Waterfowl and Wetland Conservation in East Asia; 5) Future Aquatic Ecology Research & Cooperation; 6) Plant Pollination Network: Process and Impacts; 7) Ecological Impacts of Invasive Alien Species; 8) Structure and Function of Grassland Ecosystem in Eurasia Under Global Change. In total, the conference encompassed 136 oral presentations and 82 posters.

Prof. Zhu Jiaojun, Prof. Yu Lizhong, Prof. Hao Guangyou, Prof. Yang Kai, Prof. Song Lining, and other researchers from the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, attended the conference. IAE organised the third thematic workshop "East Asia Forest Degradation and Ecological Restoration." More than 60 scholars from China, Japan, and South Korea participated in the workshop. Of them, 25 scholars gave oral presentations.

Prof. Zhu Jiaojun, vice chairman of the Chinese Ecological Society, chaired the plenary session at the opening ceremony of the conference. At the closing ceremony, Prof. Zhu Jiaojun, on behalf of Professor Ouyang Zhiyun, the chairman of the Chinese Ecological Society and new chairman of the EAFES, delivered a closing speech.