At 9:00 a.m. on October 19, the 2nd International Symposium on Natural Resource Management and Public Policy was opened in the Building of Humanities and Social Sciences. Wu Ping, Vice President of HZAU, attended the opening ceremony and delivered a speech. Other attendees of the opening ceremony were scholars from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Texas Tech University, University of Western Australia, Zhejiang University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Huazhong Normal University and other domestic and foreign universities and academic organizations, the faculties and students of the College of Public Administration and the heads of Department of International Cooperation and Exchange. The opening ceremony was presided over by Zhang Anlu, Dean of the HZAU College of Public Administration.
In her speech, Wu Ping first extended welcome to the participants. And then in her introduction of HZAU, she mentioned that HZAU boasts profound history and culture and plays an important role in the field of talents cultivating, scientific research and social service and so on. Especially, she focused on the achievements that HZAU has scored in discipline building and scientific research. For instance, five disciplines at HZAU have been selected to China’s “Double-First Class” initiative; seven disciplines rank among the top one percent in Essential Science Indicator(ESI); HZAU has been among the world top 500 universities in Academic Ranking of World Universities(ARWU) with a domestic ranking of 34 based on comprehensive strength, and it has contributed a number of papers in top journals. Finally, Wu Ping hoped that all the scholars present, together with HZAU, could yield substantial results in agricultural natural resources and public policies to make greater contributions and wished the symposium a complete success.
Subsequently, welcome speeches were presented respectively by Professor Feng Shuyi, the Vice Chairman of China Land Science Society(CLSS), Lang Haiou from the editorial department of China Land Science, Professor Liu Chengqing, the Deputy Executive Director and chief editor of the editorial department of China Population, Resources and Environment and Professor Alainna C. Thomas from the UNC Chapel Hill. After introducing the CLSS, Professor Feng indicated that the tough challenge facing the whole society is how to achieve a sustainable use of natural resources by implementing public policies. Mr. Lang introduced the history and development of China Land Science with prospect for its English edition going global. Professor Liu introduced the journal China Population, Resources and Environment, which warmly welcomes contributions in related fields. Professor Alainna C. Thomas said that he was honored to participate in this conference for international academic exchanges and expected the meeting to be successful.
After the opening ceremony, special reports and group reports were made by 11 experts and over 60 scholars from both home and abroad, respectively.
In his summary of this conference, Mr. Zhang Anlu suggested that the biggest difference of the symposium this year from the first one is that international and domestic academic organizations joined to celebrate the meeting, thus greatly promoting international cooperation and exchanges.
It is reported that over 120 experts and scholars from domestic and foreign universities, academic organizations and prestigious journals were invited to discuss about natural resource management and public policies with 80 academic papers in relevant fields collected.
(Translated by Wu Zhijia)
