Chinese scientists' Amazon River expedition enters important stage

Researchers of CAS visit Braizil for exchange

The Amazon River valley expedition by a group of Chinese scientists entered an important stage on August 5, team leader Tao Baoxiang, a senior engineer of the Geographic and Resources Institutes in the China Academy of Sciences, announced in Manaus, a city in the middle reaches of the Amazon River of Brazil.

The 19-member research team will go upstream from Manaus and conduct all-round exploration in selected areas along the mainstream of Amazon in coming ten days. They will study the local biodiversity, the relations between structural features of plants and environmental conditions, and main vertebrates, fish resources and their distribution. They will also probe into the condition of economic animal groups and their use, and the relations between animal protection and utilization. Comparing with conditions in China, the research team will also study the relations between economic development in Amazon reaches and biodiversity and environmental protection, as well as that between water resources management, custom and special animal protection.

Researchers of CAS visit Brazil for exchange

Professor Chen Guangwei, chief scientist of the expedition team, stressed once again the significance of the trip before setting out. He said that the tropical rainforest along the Amazon River is a "bank of oxygen" relying on which the earth and man exist. The biodiversity there is a very precious resource. The unique natural conditions and the geographic location of the Amazon area have given it an important position in the development of human society and global environmental changes. The human kind should make joint efforts to protect this treasure and the world countries should fully understand the resources there and use them in a rational, long-term way.

The Chinese expedition team arrived in Manaus on August 1. They visited the Amazon National Research Institute, Amazon University and exchanged views with Brazilian experts and scholars. They also carried out field inspections in the tropical rainforest and secondary forest near the city.

By People's Daily Online