Hug the trees

People hug the trees out in the wilds. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Nature education is new in China, but a start has been made by some individuals and NGOs. They are reaching out to students, especially. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden is a leading light in this new field of endeavour.

Many people know and have been to Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden because the garden, nestled on a river island near the small town Menglun, has been one of the major tourist attractions in the prefecture in Yunnan province.

However, few know that under the charge of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, it is one of the country's best botanical gardens known for its research and conservation of tropical plants. Fewer know that along with the rise of Chinese people's environmental awareness, it has become one of the country's strongholds to promote nature education.

According to the garden's 2014 annual report, about 2,500 students from all over the country participated in winter and summer camps held in XTBG, including 22 inquiry-based learning camps and 16 nature experience camps.

"It's not just because it is located in a tropical region that our garden is rich in biodiversity and beautiful all year round," says Wang Ximin, head of XTBG's nature education team. "It's mainly because we have the capacity to cater to students' need for scientific and nature education."

"With XTGB, what's so great about nature education is the scale in which things can happen, because of the amazing capacity here with all the scientists, the size of the garden and facilities available," says Sophie Williams, a lecturer in conservation science at Bangor University, in North Wales, the United Kingdom, who is doing research related to nature education at the garden for half a year, every year, since 2013.

"Thousands of students coming from some of the big cities to stay here to learn about the natural environment, learn about how science works and about the importance of plants and animals."

Once, He He, a member of Wang's team, asked her to give a presentation to some of the winter camp students, she recalls. "I was expecting maybe 10, 15 students. But He He said no, no, there are 100 students coming. So the scope in which things happen here is phenomenal. It means we can have a great impact."

At the garden, botanists give lectures on nature and scientists' lives to students; PhD and graduate students guide middle or high school students in some trial experiments in their laboratories. Wang, an US-educated nature education expert, guides students for "night hikes" in the garden from time to time.