In the morning of 30 Mar, China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center organized a meeting for academic exchanges. Mr. Stephen Midgley, Chairman of Salwood Asia Pacific Pty Ltd, an Australia consulting firm, made a presentation titled “Prosperity, aspirations and commodity consumption--a glowing future for eucalypts”. He pointed out that against the backdrop of the rapid growth of population and economy and the substantial rise of energy demand, China and India are importing, exporting and consuming more and more timber. Timber shortage has been increasingly severe. Eucalypts, as one of the three rapid-growing and high-yielding tree species, has a mature industrial chain over its development for the past 100 years and will be one of the indispensable tree species to fill in the timber shortage.

Mr. Stephen Midgley has been working for CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) forestry for a long time. He was officer in charge and international business director of Australian Tree Seed Centre, and team leader for Australian specialists for the program of China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center. He had been working in China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center for a year, and contributed to talent education and germplasm resources introduction of China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center.

The meeting interpreted the Management Guidelines for Projects in China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center (Trial). Dr. Chen Hongpeng and Dr. Liu Guo from the molecular biological research office reported on research progress on their programs sponsored by CAF fund respectively.

The meeting was hosted by Mr. Li Tianhui, director for science and research, China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center. 32 researchers and graduate students attended the meeting. (Zheng Jiaqi from China Eucalyptus Research and Development Center)