Achievement

Trainees organized a symposium at the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies in St. Paul, Minnesota, in October, 2011. The title of the symposium was “Biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the eastern Himalaya of Yunnan, China.” Following is an abbreviated abstract: Our group is affiliated with the University of Wisconsin’s NSF IGERT program "Biodiversity Conservation and Sustainable Development in Southwest China,” a program that conducts cross-disciplinary research in the eastern Himalaya of Yunnan, China. During the last 30 years, China has undergone massive changes. Yunnan Province, a biodiversity hotspot, is subject to many of these forces of change. Yunnan plays a critical role in understanding what is happening at the Himalaya’s eastern edge. We hope the session will foster dialogue on how biodiversity conservation and sustainable development in the eastern Himalaya can inform and benefit from broader examinations of change across Himalayan regions.