The BioDiversity Conservancy

About us

Co-President - Ou Xiaokun Professor Ou is UNESCO Cousteau Ecotechnie Professor, Yunnan University and Director of its Institute of Ecology and Geobotany. Foremost expert on ecological classification of Yunnan's vegetation communities, particularly the ecosystem known as the "dry-hot valley," he's published a major study, as well as numerous papers. He has long been dedicated to conservation of ecosystems he sees threatened in Yunnan province. Professor Ou has been the single most important supporter in China of BDC's efforts.

Co-President - Hardy Wieting, Jr Philosopher and lawyer by training, Dr. Wieting found the public interest career he was looking for: conservation of biodiversity. Dr. Jenkins asked him to learn taxonomy, ecological niches, computers -- and to propagate and manage a network of centers employing new conservation methodology. He's thus one of the principal creators of the network of Natural Heritage Programs/CDCs, now an independent, permanent network of entities rooted in local governments. Innovation in contracts and financing led on to developing training programs, responsive supervision, agency cooperation, and participation in system design. Dr. Wieting has been leading BDC's efforts in Asia. He's also authored books about China and about birds. PhD Princeton, J.D. Yale, B.A. Stanford. Fulbright Scholar Oxford.

GIS Coordinator - Zhang Zhiming Ming is Professor and vice dean of the School of Ecology and Environment, researching vegetation and biodiversity remote sensing mapping, ecosystem change monitoring and restoration, and forest fragmentation. Also, remote sensing and geographic information system application and development.

Co-Director, Yunnan Natural Heritage Conservation Decision Center - Peng Shengjing Peng Shengjing, whose English name is Samantha, has been working with YN-NHCDC since plans were first being drafted and she was a new graduate student in ecology. A native of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, she is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Ghent as well as the Co-Director of YN-NHCDC. One of her main tasks in Kunming is to enlist the aid of graduate students in ecology in populating the YN-NHCDC database on Yunnan's biodiversity and to supervise their work.

Co-Director, Yunnan Natural Heritage Conservation Decision Center - Sun Zhenhua Sun Zhenhua, whose English name is Ted, has been working with YN-NHCDC since early days, most of that time while pursuing his PhD in ecology at Yunnan University. Thoroughly versed in the ways of modern computers and software, he has also helped provide translations of field names and data items into Chinese. Dr. Sun is an expert in techniques of statistical analysis, highly useful with the immense amount of data that has already been compiled and which will continue to expand. He now also holds a research position at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden. PhD Yunnan University.

Chairman - Bob Jenkins Dr. Jenkins designed and launched the first State Natural Heritage Program while serving as Chief Scientist of The Nature Conservancy. He is the principal architect, heading the Operating Procedures Group, of the standard methodology that unites all heritage decision/data centers. OPG developed the network's logical concepts, data structures, filing conventions and software. He's lectured widely on biodiversity matters and authored numerous papers. ~ Prof. E.O.Wilson of Harvard, author of The Diversity of Life and the world's leading writer about conservation of biodiversity, has called "Bob Jenkins, one of the great unsung heroes of conservation science." PhD Harvard, B.S. Rutgers. Here is our song to this hero.

Software Guru - Keith Carr Keith's contribution has been to understand what the NHCDC wants to do, then to find the right software, and then to oversee implementation and testing. His ability to make things clear to co-workers who lack his grasp of system details is remarkable. He has done this through several key generations of Natural Heritage methodology and is the guiding light behind building systems useful for Asia.

Media Consultant - Laura Grace Chipley Laura is Associate Prof. in the American Studies / Media & Communications department at SUNY Old Westbury. A graduate of Bard College, she is familiar with China, having taught in Kunming and travelled extensively in Yunnan and other parts of China. She is at present at work on several China media projects. Her website is Laura.

Uzbekistan NHCDC Facilitator - Aziz Bashirov Aziz started by successfully taking on the very substantial job of translating a system, including formats and protocols, which originated in English, which was then implemented through considerable effort in Spanish, and for which a new version had been produced using Chinese -- translating this entire system into Russian. Russian is the language of the scientific community in Uzbekistan, one of the newly independent states of the former Soviet Union. He has done a remarkable job of laying the groundwork for the UZ-NHCDC, including initial data-gathering, though the decision center still awaits funding to move from a proto-program phase into a fully-participating network unit.

BDC Partnerships

BDC has benefited from working relationships with other institutions. Foremost among these is the Institute of Ecology & Geobotany, Yunnan University, one of the key ecological conservation units in the province. Kunming Institute of Botany, one of the largest herbariums in China, made famous by one of China's most well-known scientists, Wu Zhengyi, has generously provided data to graduate students working on YN-NHCDC and taught them how access it. Dr. Zhou Zhekan has contributed much to this working relationship. Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden is another major botanical and ecological institution within the province which has provided assistance to YN-NHCDC.
Uzbekistan. BDC has joined with the Uzbekistan Institute of Botany to create the Central Asian Partnership (CAP). The goal of CAP is to establish the Uzbekistan Natural Heritage Conservation Data/Decision Center, utilizing both the software BDC has created and translated and the training and management techniques in which BDC is experienced.

Contact Us

Initial contact is by email to [email protected], BDC's central email address. BDC's main mailing address in China is BDC/BDI, Yunnan Da Xue, Xi Yuan 7-02, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 650091 China. BDC is the action program of The BioDiversity Institute (BDI), our 501(c)(3) charitable organization mother ship. Contributions to BDI are fully tax deductible, greatly appreciated, and all funds go to the work of BDC.
BDC maximizes grants from donors by an exceptionally effort to keep costs at an absolute minimum. This includes the use of "appropriate technology" in propagating its conservation systems to Asia, but it also includes organizational economies which greatly reduce overhead: BDC's state/provincial offices are partnerships with individuals who have worked for the in-state or in-province Natural Heritage Program/Conservation Data Centre.

BDC's Advisory Board

Chairman is Donald Reeve Nicholson, II, M.B.A. (The Wharton School). Don has served on the board of World Wildlife Fund, has worked for CARE, established women's health clinics in LDC's all over Latin America, and been Central Asia Regional Director of Central Asia Small Enterprise Fund. Unmatched experience in building enterprises. Larry Master, PhD (U Michigan) was Coordinator of the Michigan Natural Heritage Program, head of eastern heritage programs for Science Div. of TNC, and Chief Zoologist for Natureserve. See his website. Paul Shin, PhD (Ireland) is Emeritus Professor of Biology at City University, Hong Kong. Lianchao Han, J.D. (Beijing), LL.M. (Yale), PhD (George Mason) has worked on Capitol Hill as an aide to three Senators, Hank Brown of Colorado, Rod Gramms of Minnesota, and Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. Sukjo Kim of Seoul, Korea, J.D. (Harvard), has worked throughout Asia and advises start-up organizations, among his many other skills, Mel Masuda, J.D. (Yale) M.P.A. (Harvard), Professor at Hawaii Pacific University, promoter of relationships between East and West, and Living Legend. Bob Detrano, now our "innovative biodiversity videographer," inter alia, using trail cameras, including floating ones, to observe wildlife and document populations (see creek & marsh, & warblers); M.D. (Univ. of Rome), a PhD in physics who became a doctor now with unique experience of China, especially Yunnan, gained from his pediatric cardiology work visiting villages and listening to hearts with assistance from his wife, Shan Shan. George Fenwick, PhD (Johns Hopkins) founded and was President of the American Bird Conservancy; he served as Director of the Maryland NHCDC and was a Vice President at The Nature Conservancy before founding ABC. Mary Ellen Connell, B.A. (Smith), M.Phil (Kansas), is a career foreign policy analyst who also worked with the Peace Corps. Diana Daniels, J.D. (Berkeley), is former General Counsel of the Washington Post and mother of two girls adopted from China. Ludwig Brinckmann, MSc (Hamburg), creator of the website yunnanexplorer.com and explorer of the province's ethnic diversity. Andrew Wilbur, M.B.A. (Thunderbird, American School of International Management) is a businessman long interested in conserving biodiversity; he co-founded Merepoint Capital Management Co LLC in San Diego. Philip Skehan, PhD (Yale) Science Director of Andes Pharmaceuticals led important efforts at the National Cancer Institute to screen natural products (biodiversity) for anticancer properties.

Part of history now,
in grateful thanks for the support they gave us, and for helping us get started in extending our
cooperating network, held together by common methodology, interacting, beyond original borders:

Chonam Ng, PhD (Lancaster) of the University of Hong Kong, one of the leading conservationists in China, where he served as Chairman of the HK Conservancy Association; Ernest Chung, PhD (California Institute of Technology), M.B.A, (UCLA), worked for Chevron, was a partner in a management consulting firm, and helped save a California park; Robert Chipley, PhD (Cornell) served as Chief Ornithologist and Manager, Natural Heritage Programs, The Nature Conservancy; Ben Brown , (PhD Texas A&M) grassland ecologist by training and former Director of the Texas Natural Heritage Program. Philip Kissam, economist and professor of law who served, early in his career, with the Peace Corps.
William D. Blair, Jr, former President and Chairman of the Board of The Nature Conservancy, and his wife, Jane C. Blair, who taught history, served on numerous NGO boards, self-described China enthusiast; William D. Rogers, former Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs.