In order to popularize knowledge of plant diversity and protection, improve young students’ awareness of plant protection, and exercise students’ professional skills, the Heilongjiang University Students Botanical Specimen Production Tournament was successfully held online on January 8th. It was sponsored by China Wild Plant Protection Association, Heilongjiang Botanical Society and Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center, and was co-organized by the School of Forestry of the Northeast Forestry University, the School of Life Science of the Northeast Agriculture University, and the School of Life Science and Technology of Harbin Normal University.

Huang Jianhua, President of the China Wildlife Conservation Association, delivered a speech. He pointed out the importance of plant diversity, saying that plant specimens were an important carrier of biodiversity information, and the collection and production of physical specimens were very important. He hoped to carry out teaching, popularization and research on botanical specimens, train scientific thinking and relevant skills, and increase scientific knowledge of college students.

Hu Baozhong, vice chairman of the Heilongjiang Botanical Society, explained the significance of the tournament from the national and school levels in his speech. He owed the establishment of the Herbarium of Heilongjiang Province to the collection and accumulation of generations of people under difficult conditions. The working spirit of the experts was worthy of admiration, learning and inheritance. Moreover, it was necessary for our college students to start from now, learn the professional basic knowledge, exercise excellent hands-on skills, and become experts in the field of life science, biodiversity protection and promotion.

Sun Long, Dean of the School of Forestry of the Northeast Forestry University, delivered a speech on the biodiversity research work of the Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center. He said that plant specimens were important materials for biodiversity research, and the Northeast Forestry University had always attached importance to biodiversity work represented by plant specimen collection. He introduced the division of labor and goals of the Northeast Asia Biodiversity Research Center, and sincerely invited all universities and research institutes inside and outside the Heilongjiang province to participate in the work of the Northeast Asia Research Center, and jointly contribute to the biodiversity research.

20 works were selected from the 38 works of 9 universities to enter the final through correspondence evaluation. In the finals, 15 experts including Ge Binjie from Herbarium of the Shanghai Chenshan Botanical Garden, Liu Peiliang from Northwestern University, and Zhu Dan from Bayi Agricultural Reclamation University, were specially invited as judges. After the serious display and explanation of the students, as well as the questions and comments from the judges, 4 first-prize works, 6 second-prize works, and 10 third-prize works were finally selected.