The 9th EAFES International Congress (9th EAFES) organized by the East Asian Federation of Ecological Societies (EAFES) , hosted by Ecological Society of China (ESC) and the Inner Mongolia Academy of Agricultural and Animal Husbandry Sciences was held in Hohhot, China from July 10 to 13 2021. The theme of the congress is “Harmonizing People and Nature for Better Asia”, which focuses on harmonious and sustainable development among people, nature, and society in the context of Asia development. Due to the influence of the COVID-19, the 9th EAFES was conducted as a hybrid one, on-site and online, residents in China attended as on-site, foreign participants joined the congress via ZOOM.

The 9th EAFES consisted of 8 fantastic plenary talks from China, Japan and Korea scientists. These plenary talks cover a wide range of topics, from regional ecological security barrier construction to impacts of global change on biological populations, from Incidence and Correlates of Dioecy to Aquatic Protected Areas, and from ecosystem-based approaches to disaster risk reduction and to address emerging infectious diseases, to climate adaptation through ecological restoration, forestation, and other nature-based solutions.  The 9th EAFES also had 8 interesting thematic parallel sessions which also cover a very diverse topics. 450 registered participants from 9 countries (China, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, France,Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka, Thailand) attend both onsite and online. The number of abstract was 249 (Chinese 150, foreign 99) with 136 oral presentations (Chinese 84, foreign 52) and 82 posters (Chinese 42, foreign 40) focusing on the 8 sessions. These oral presentations were dominated by senior ecological researchers and young researchers such as graduate students, and all those talks were so excellent and impressive. The participants also had busy and fruitful discussions. All participants get together onsite and online to enjoy science and international friendship. Thus, the 9th EAFES finished with great success.

In 2003, the Ecological Society of China took the lead in launching the East Asian Federation of Ecological Societies (EAFES), which was then established collaboratively by the Ecological Societies of China, Japan and South Korea. It aims to promot the cooperation and exchange of ecological science and technology in East Asia. The three Ecological Societies take turns organizing the joint meeting (EAFES Congress) at least once in 2 years.

The next EAFES Congress is going to be held in 2023, in Jeju Island, South Korea, which is expect to be an on-site congress, encouraging possible participants not only from the three countries but from all over the world. Through EAFES, it is helpful to facilitate information exchange among international researchers for further development in ecological and biodiversity research all over the world, , and foster the next generation in science of ecology and biodiversity.

The EAFES leadership has been officially transferred during the executive committee meeting held on July 10th 2021. As the rule, host society for EAFES Congress has EAFES presidency. So, EAFES presidency has been successfully transferred from president of ecological society of Japan prof Takakazu Yumoto to president of ecological society of China prof. Ouyang Zhiyun.

Photo 1: The 9th EAFES International Congress organized by the East Asian Federation of Ecological Societies (EAFES) was held in Hohhot, China from July 10 to 13 2021. 

Photo 2: Residents in China attended on-site EAFES Hohhot Congress.

Photo 3: There were busy and fruitful discussions for every presentations.