Dr. Ken Cameron, Director of the Wisconsin State Herbarium and Associate Professor of Botany, traveled to China this summer at the invitation of the People’s Government of Guanxi Province.
Cameron was a keynote speaker at the first international orchid conservation symposium held in rural Leye County in southwest Guanxi not far from the Vietnam border.
The purpose of the symposium was to formally dedicate the Yachang Nature Reserve, China’s first natural area dedicated to the protection of endangered orchids.
Botanists have already identified more than 130 orchid species within the Yachang Reserve, a small forested area of only 220 km2.
- A native Chinese orchid at the Yachang Reserve.
Through on-site sustainable harvest and cultivation practices, as well as international research collaboration, this reserve represents a bright spot for plant conservation in rapidly developing China.
Cameron remained in the country for three weeks following the symposium collecting specimens and further strengthening his collaboration with botanists at Zhejiang University.