News Brief
By Jin Yingying
The 5th World Congress of Biosphere Reserves (WCBR) and the 37th session of the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere International Coordinating Council will take place in Hangzhou from Sept 22 to 27, 2025.
It is the first time that this prestigious ecological conference be hosted in the Asia-Pacific region, with Hangzhou becoming the first.
To date, the previous four congresses have been held in Minsk (1984), Seville (1995), Madrid (2008) and Lima (2016).
In May 2022, China formally submitted a bid to the UNESCO to host the congress, and after deliberations of the MAB International Coordinating Council, the applicationwas confirmed.
Out of the 34 World Biosphere Reserves in China, many span across various provincial administrative regions. Hangzhou was finally chosen for its ideal location, excellent infrastructure, and most importantly, its close proximity to the Lin'an Tianmu Mountain World Biosphere Reserves.
Lin'an Tianmushan, listed as a UNESCO site since 1996, is the only World Biosphere Reserves in Hangzhou and is renowned globally despite its small size. It is known as the "natural botanical garden," the "kingdom of large trees", and the "gene bank of species". Located between the Yangtze River Delta Region and the Shanghai-Hangzhou metropolitan area, the biosphere reserve experiences a subtropical monsoonal humid climate with four distinct seasons and abundant rainfall, which facilitate the growth of various plants.