The congress was jointly sponsored by Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), the Chinese Academy of Sciences, HubeiProvince People's Government, State Administration of Forestry, and Wuhan City People’s Government and undertaken by the Wuhan Botanical Garden. The conference, which had the highest specification among the global botanical gardens, was firstly held by an Asian country—China, reaching the largest scale in the history of the Global Botanic Garden Congresses. A total of more than 1000 representatives from over 300 botanic gardens in 90 countries and regions, and more than ten world-famous botanists were invited to deliver plenary speeches.  

Theme of the congress is “Building a sustainable future: role of botanic gardens; major issues of the congress include: ① investigation and catalogue of plant species diversity; ② conservation of plant species diversity; ③ sustainable utilization of plant species diversity; ④ strengthening of education and awareness work of plant species diversity. 347 academic papers were accepted by the congress, 202 of which were oral presentations and 145 posters. 

The successful staging of the congress has significantly improved the international status and influence of our botanical garden, and played an important role in promoting the development of botanical gardens as well as conservation of plant resources and construction of a harmonious society. Meanwhile, such congress proved that as one of the regions with the richest plant species diversity around the world, China has played an extremely important role in research and protection of plant species diversity and construction of botanic gardens, and become a dominant force in protecting the global plant species diversity.