Chengdu, September 2, 2025 —Director Linxiu Zhang, visited the Chengdu Institute of Biology (CIB) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) for the seminar, focusing on the theme of duckweed technology innovation. This visit aimed to deepen cooperation in the fields of ecological protection and bioeconomy, and jointly explore innovative solutions to address global environmental and food security challenges.

At the seminar, Professor Hai Zhao from the Research Center for Biological Resources and Ecological Environment of CIB, CAS, delivered a keynote report on behalf of his research team. He elaborated on the team's two-decade-long systematic research achievements centered on the development and utilization of duckweed resources. The team has successfully built an innovative R&D system integrating biodiversity conservation, ecological environment restoration, and food security assurance, demonstrating the great potential of duckweed in addressing multiple global challenges.

Director Zhang pointed out that the work of Professor Zhao’s team is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially providing comprehensive solutions for eradicating hunger (SDG 2), ensuring clean water and sanitation (SDG 6), taking climate action (SDG 13), and protecting terrestrial ecosystems (SDG 15). She emphasized in particular that promoting the transformation towards a bio-based economy based on biological resources is becoming a key path to enhance global environmental governance and development resilience. The team's research is an outstanding practice in this field and has global promotion value. She expressed the hope that UNEP-IEMP and CIB will further strengthen their partnership in the future, jointly promote the application and demonstration of these innovative technologies in Global South countries, and enable China's technological innovation to contribute more to global sustainable development.