"The Festival Biodiversité", hosted by the French Embassy in China, co-organized by Institute of Zoology (IOZ), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), was inaugurated in IOZ on September 13, 2007. De-Xing Zhang, Vice Director of IOZ, Ming Suying, Deputy Counselor from the Department of Science and Technology in the French Embassy, and many related experts home and aboard attended the opening ceremony and the symposium.

At the symposium, Professor Jiang Zhigang from IOZ, gave a lecture entitled “Armand David, French Missionaries and Nature History in 19th Century China ? A Summary of the Past and its Impacts Nowadays”. Professor Denis COUVET from the French National Museum of Natural History, delivered a lecture on index and supervision of biodiversity, introducing the influence of environment and climate had on biodiversity. Associate Researcher Wei Wei from Institute of Botany, CAS, was also invited to give a report. The Chinese and foreign experts had a heated discussion with the students and answered their questions.

It was reported that “The Festival Biodiversité” was one of the activities in the first “Festival of Environmental Sciences” which was hosted by the French Embassy in China. Many free movies related to environmental sciences were presented to the public for the purpose of attracting a lot of publicity and enhancing people’s sense of environmental protection.