The 3rd Africa-Asia Drought Adaptation Forum Held in Urumqi

On 15 August 2013, the 3^rd Africa-Asia Drought Adaptation Forum (AADF) was held in Urumqi.

The forum was jointly organized by the Australian Government Agency for International Development, Drylands Development Centre (DDC) of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UNDP Country Offices in China, China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges, and Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences (XIEG). More than 40 domestic and foreign researches from Ethiopia, Ghana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, Kenya, USA, Japan, India and China attend this forum.

The aims of the forum are to provide a communication opportunity for the researches in the field of mitigating drought disaster risk, and to achieve agreed targets of south-south cooperation in drought disaster risk reduction under the frame of Africa-Asia Drought Risk Management Peer Assistance Network.

LEI Jiaqiang, deputy director of XIEG, presided over the opening plenary of this forum. FU Chunli, deputy director of Xinjiang Branch, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and XIAO Fenghuai, director of China International Center for Economic and Technical Exchanges, attended the opening plenary and presented welcome address.

This forum was divided into two parts: symposium and field investigation. On 15-16 August, the symposium was conducted and mainly focused on the utilization, protection and management of water resources, degradation and restoration of soil structure, and soil fertility management. During the period of 17-21 August, researchers conducted field investigation in the Turpan Eremophytes Botanical Garden, CAS, Taklimakan Station for Desert Research, XIEG, CAS, and Qira National Field Research Station for Desert Steppe Ecosystems.