Foreign Researchers Begin to Make Their Mark

摘要

As one of the country's poorer provinces, Yunnan in southwestern China has struggled to balance economic development and conservation. "Few researchers in China are equipped with the necessary expertise or perspective" to help Yunnan officials craft sound environmental policies, says Xu Jianchu, a conservation biologist at the Kunming Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). That's where Edward Grumbine comes in. With more than 2 decades of experience as an environmental policy expert, Grumbine came to Kunming from Prescott College in Arizona on a 1-year fellowship and just reupped for a second year. He and Xu are trying to persuade local officials to take a holistic approach toward land-use management and to enlighten them on the perils of unrestrained hydro-power development.