On February 11, 2022, Yu Guoqing, director and party secretary of the Institute of Sandy Land Management and Utilization of Liaoning Province (ISL), together with Zhang Xueli (deputy director of ISL), Lv Linyou (head of the Pasture Research and Development Center of ISL) and Wu Dedong (deputy head of the Academic Committee of ISL), visited the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The two sides exchanged ideas on field research station construction, scientific research cooperation, and personnel training. 

Zhu Jiaojun, director of IAE, Wang Xugao, head of the Science and Technology Division of IAE, Hao Guangyou, head of Daqinggou Station, Song Lining of the Secondary Forest Ecology and Management Research Group, and Zong Wenjun, head of the General Office of IAE attended the discussion. 

Zhu Jiaojun first gave a welcome speech. He said that the ISL and the IAE have always maintained a good exchange and cooperation relationship. He hoped that the two institutes collaborate hand-in-hand to build new achievements in the integrated management and utilization of mountains, water bodies, forests, farmland, lakes, grassland and sandy land, and to make new contribution to ecological security construction. 

Hao Guangyou told the visitors about the basic information of Daqinggou Station, including the station's research conditions, scientific projects and development goals. Afterwards, he listened to the opinions of the leaders of both institutes on how to co-construct the shelterbelt research station. 

Yu Guoqing said that the two institutes have long history and good foundation for cooperation, that the two sides have complementary advantages in research fields such as forestry ecological engineering and desertification control, and that the cooperative relationship between the two sides should be inherited and carried forward. He hoped that the advantages of ISL on desertification control and technology popularization and demonstration can help reinforce the cooperation between the two institutes. 

At the end of the symposium, Zhu Jiaojun put forward some specific suggestions and measures to help establish the projected national station, to deepen the bilateral relationship, to conduct cooperative research for controlling wind and sand hazards in Horqin sandy land area and in northwestern Liaoning, and to apply for provincial-and-national-level projects about shelterbelt construction, ecological integrated control, and black soil conservation and utilization. 

This symposium will expand the cooperation and academic exchanges between the two institutes onward to a new era and will achieve win-win outcomes.