From June 20 to 22th, 2011, Reservoir Management Section of the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee Executive Office organized relevant experts to participate in the construction periods acceptance of the project named “Conservation Projects on Three endemic plants in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area: Plantago fengdouensis, Buxus ichangensis, and Rhamnus tzekweiensis”, which was undertaken by Wuhan Botanical Garden (WBG), the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The institutions participating in the acceptance include: Reservoir Management Section of the State Council Three Gorges Project Construction Committee Executive Office, Peking University, China Three Gorges Corporation, Yangze River Valley Water Resources Protection Bureau and Yangze River Water Resources Protection Scientific Research Institute. The expert team was consisted of 9 scientists and relevant leaders. HUANG Zhenli, deputy head of Reservoir Management Section, Three Gorges Office presided over the acceptance while Vice Director ZHANG Quanfa and head of Scientific Research Office LIANG Qiong both from WBG participated in the acceptance.

The acceptance team inspected three conserved sites including Jiulingtou Forestry Farm of Zigui County, Hubei Province, Three Gorges Botanical Garden of Yichang city and WBG. The project responsible person, Dr. WANG Yong from WBG and Chief Supervisor, Li Ren from Yangze River Water Resources Protection Scientific Research Institute reported their works, respectively. After three-year’s efforts, four conservation bases of three species Plantago fengdouensis, Buxus ichangensis, and Rhamnus tzekweiensis were created, including two wild conservation bases and two botanical garden bases. DNA storage under super low temperature and long-term seed storage under low temperature were performed. In addition, the endangered reasons for these plants were explored to ensure the sustainability of the conservation work.

After discussion, the acceptance team thought all the indexes of the project were completed successfully. The projects play an important role in protecting the endemic plant resources in Three Gorges Reservoir Area.

Construction periods acceptance conference (Image by YANG Fan)