On August 27, 2018, at the invitation of Prof. LI Qi from the Soil Ecology Group of the Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Martijn Bezemer of the Netherlands Institute of Ecology made an academic visit to the Erguna Forest-Steppe Ecotone Research Station (hereinafter referred to as Erguna Station).

The 17th World Fertilizer Congress (WFC) themed as ‘Go East! Fertilizers!’ was launched successfully in Shenyang on September 3rd-7th, 2018. The WFC was organized jointly by International Scientific Centre of Fertilizers and Chinese Academy of Sciences. The host organizers include Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute for Crop and Soil Science, Julius Kuhn-Institute, Germany and Shenyang Association for Science and Technology. This is the second time for China to host this highly regarded event since 2001.

On August 17, 2018, LIU Li, deputy director of Dandong Municipal Science and Technology Bureau and other eight people from Dandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Dandong Pharmaceutical Group as well as Kuandian County S&T Bureau visited Qingyuan Forest Ecosystem Research Station and investigated forest understory economic development.

In 2018, it is the 40th anniversary of the construction of the Three-North Afforestation Program of China (abbreviation: Three-North Program). The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), as a third-party agency, was commissioned by the State Forestry and Grassland Administration (SFGA) to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the Three-North Program in the past 40 years. The Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences is the leading institute of this assessment task.

On July 29, 2018, FANG Yunting, deputy director of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, paid a visit to Erguna Station and held talks with Chuluun Togtokh, professor of the National University of Mongolia (NUM), on cooperation projects under the “One Belt and One Road Initiative”. WU Yunna, professor and chief of the Student Affairs Department of Dalian Nationalities University participated in the negotiation activities.

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.

From July 12th to 14th, 2018, the seminar of the Sino-US International Cooperation Major Project “Responses of Grassland Ecosystem to Extreme Climate Events”, co-sponsored by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Science Foundation of the United States, was held at Erguna Forest-Steppe Ecotone Research Station, Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as Erguna Station).

On the morning of July 15, the academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and former director of the National Meteorological Administration (NMA), QIN Dahe, leading the team members of program “Hulunbeier National Ecological Protection Comprehensive Experimental Zone Construction / Implementation Plan”, paid a visit and investigation to the Erguna forest-grassland transition zone ecosystem research station (Erguna station) of the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). QIN’s visit was accompanied by XU Xiaofeng, deputy director of the NMA, and WANG Jinbao, deputy director of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Development and Reform Commission.

On July 12, 2018, CAO Xianghui, LI Huan, the two leaders of Tangshan Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), GONG Xuehua, chairman of Hebei Tianshan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., DONG Wencheng, chairman of Tangshan Lvzhiyuan Agricultural Corporation, and CHEN Zhijie, general manager of Wanshida Agricultural Corporation visited the Institute of Applied Ecology (IAE) of CAS. Prof. FANG Yunwei, deputy director of IAE, hosted the visitors. The visitors and the relevant exports from IAE (Prof. CHEN Xin, Prof. CHEN Wei, Prof. HAO Guangyou, senior engineer MA Jiangao, senior engineer JIANG Zhiyang, and JING Hongshuang, deputy division chief of Science and Technology Division of IAE) held a symposium discussing the potential cooperation.