Construction of a memorial park at the Futian Mangrove Ecological Park started on July 25 to mark the 2017 XIX International Botanical Congress.
The 2017 IBC was held in Futian of Shenzhen, Guangdong province, between July 23 and 29 for plant scientists from around the world to share new research findings and ideas, establish international collaborations as well as make new friendships and renew old ones.
At a launch ceremony held by the Shenzhen government, 20 domestic and foreign experts in the botanical science left their handprints on clay templates and wrote their names along with words about the memorial park in a booklet. Participants at the ceremony included Wu Weihua, president of the congress' organizing committee; Hong Deyuan and Li Jiayang, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Friedrich Ehrendorfer, an academician of the Austrian Academy of Sciences; and Vernon Heywood, an emeritus professor at the University of Reading.
In addition to increasing the public's awareness of the need to care for plants and the future of mankind, the establishment of the memorial park also aims to showcase the government's contributions to the maintenance of ecological balance and the protection of ecological diversity. The government also hopes to raise public awareness in relation to supporting botanical research.
The location of the park was selected by the XIX IBC organizing committee and the Futian district government, with the latter overseeing construction as well as operation and management.
The memorial park will have a unique design, while park management will only modify and enhance the original soil and clear invasive species, leaving the rest of the park to develop naturally.
