Academic activities are not only important platforms to promote discipline development and exchanges among ESC members, but also important means for ESC to unite scientific and technological practitioners and its members and offer services to scientific and technological practitioners. Academic exchanges are important sources for scientific and technological practitioners to acquire new ideas, new knowledge, new skills and information; to integrate into the community of scientists and gain recognition from their peers; to expand business horizons, expand external exchanges and cooperation, as well as for ESC to conduct external publicity.

Under the common appeal, efforts and propulsion of ESC Education Work Committee members, the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council and the Steering Committee for Education and Occupation of the Ministry of Education, ecology was upgraded as the first-level discipline by the Academic Degree Commission of the State Council in 2011, raising the standing of ecology in the development of natural science in China, and promoting the well-establishment of ecology discipline system.

China Ecology Congress is a brand academic activity held by ESC and is the most influential, largest and the most authoritative academic activity in the field of ecology in China. From its beginning in 1979 to the 19th China Ecology Congress in 2020, the conference has gone through more than 40 years. It has thrived from an academic exchange meeting for ESC members at the beginning of its establishment to a national conference for academic exchanges of ecologists. In recent years, the quality of the conference, the number of participants, the number of presentations and the number of exchange papers have all gone up rapidly. Especially since China Ecology Congress becomes an annual event after 2009, the number of participants has increased from 400 to more than 3,000 representatives. The influence of China Ecology Congress is increasing each year.

China's Lazikou Forum on Ecological Civilization is the brand forum of China Ecology Conference. It was jointly founded by ESC and the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Gannan in 2009 and has been successfully held annually since for 11 years. This high-level forum is designed to promote ecological science and technology to help local and regional development and enhance cultivation of people.

The branches of ESC actively carry out various academic activities on special topics to exchange academic ideas. Through the display of achievements, exchange of skills and in-depth cooperation, etc., a multi-directional exchange platform has been built to improve professional standards and expand the influence of ESC.