The fourth Humidtropics Platform in the Mekong region was launched on September 24 in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province, China. Fifty stakeholders attended from government, research, business and NGO sectors. Two thirds of the participants were local, and the remainder came from Yunnan or National level organisations. Xishuangbanna is famous within China for biodiversity and cultural diversity: it covers 0.2% of China’s land area, but harbors 16% of China’s plant species, 22% of mammals, and 36% of birds. There are eight distinct major ethnic groups with separate languages, and many … [Read more...]