The 7^th International Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development in the Mongolian Plateau and Surrounding Regions was held in Beijing on August 31^st, 2011. More than 70 participants from 10 institutions of Mongolia, Japan, Germany and China participated in the event. The opening session was followed by 40 presentations covering themes of ecosystem services, LUCC, soil erosion and land degradation, climate change, nomadic culture and grassland management.

attendee

During the conference, participants achieved the consensus that global change and human economical activities have been resulting in regional land-use change and soil erosion and land degradation, which strengthened sand storm and caused loss of biodiversity. They also reached the agreement that future cooperation will focus on the improvement of research techniques and relationship between human activities and grassland ecosystem and building a co-operation mechanism to effectively protect natural ecosystem in Mongolian Plateau. Meantime, the participants discussed intensively on how to enhance the exchanges and training program to construct a foundation for long-term co-operation.

To co-organize International Conference on Environment and Sustainable Development in the Mongolian Plateau and Surrounding Regions, one of the major collaboration activities included in MoU, which was signed by IGSNRR of CAS, IG of MAS, and IMNU in 2006, when the JRC was established. The outcomes from each of the conferences are becoming influential worldwide for the research on resource and environment of the Mongolian Plateau, and increasing number of institutions and governmental agencies have shown their interests in participating in JRC activities. JRC welcomes all interested personals and institutions to joining in and working together.

It is agreed that the 8^th conference will be held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in October 2012.

The  conference was jointly organized by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research (IGSNRR) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Institute of Geography (IG), Mongolian Academy of Sciences (MAS), Inner Mongolian Normal University (IMNU), National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan, Beijing Nodal Office of Global Land Project (GLP), Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF), Chinese-German Centre for Impact Assessment and International Research Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development in Mongolian Plateau (JRC).

The representatives from organization committee, are Profs. Lin Zhen (Beijing director of JRC), Jiyuan Liu, Shengkui Cheng (Deputy IGSNRR); and Heqing Huang (Director of GLP Beijing Nodal Office). Prof. Zhaotian Zhang, deputy director of information department of National Natural Science Foundation of China, Academician Dorjgotov Dechingungaa, director of Institute of Geography, MAS, Prof. Yaxin, vice president of Inner Mongolian Normal University, Dr. Katharina Helming from ZALF, Prof. Bayantur from Mongolian National University have delivered their opening address at the opening ceremony of the conference.