China climate center welcomes citizen scientists

The opening of China’s Regional Climate Centre, the newest of five international sites where HSBC bank volunteers (called “Climate Champions”) work alongside scientists to study the effects of climate change on forests, was celebrated at Gutianshan Nature Reserve, China, on 22 September 2009. The HSBC Climate Partnership—a collaboration between HSBC, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Earthwatch Institute, WWF, and The Climate Group—has four other Regional Climate Centers in India, Brazil, the US, and the UK.

Earthwatch and the Institute of Botany at the Chinese Academy of Sciences host HSBC Climate Champions (kneeling above) at Gutianshan Nature Reserve in eastern China, where they measure tree growth and litter production using techniques developed by CTFS.

In 2005, Dr. Ma Keping (below left, with Teresa Au of HSBC) and colleagues established a long-term 24-ha forest-monitoring site in warm-temperate evergreen forest at Gutianshan as part of the Chinese Forest Biodiversity Monitoring Network, a partner network of the Center for Tropical Forest Science.