Invited by Department of Zoology, Faculty of Biology (HNUE), Prof. John James Wilson (China Agricultural University) and Dr. Sing Kong-Wah (Chinese Academy of Sciences) actually gave an impressive and informative seminar to audiences on 5^th October 2017.

Prof. John started a speech titled “Application of DNA barcoding in wildlife conservation in Tropical East Asia”. He introduced about the status of biodiversity loss over past 50 years and number of species barcoded in the world as well as the necessity of DNA barconding application in SEA. Then, applications of DNA barcodes in biodiversity inventory and for monitoring and assessments of target species were delivered in the seminar. Another part of his talk was about some methods to elucidate biodiversity namely non-lethal DNA, environmental DNA and blowfly-derived DNA. We collect water, soil or air samples, then we could indicate species name inhabiting there. It is so amazing, isn’t it! His talk closed but opened to the listeners as information of the DNA barcoding team, South China DNA Barcoding Center, was provided with an invitation for all participants. 

Next, Dr. Sing provided a topic Diversity of bee and butterfly in Tropical East Asian megacities, which seemed familiar with audiences because these organisms are daily interacting to humans. In fact, urbanization is a challenge in conservation and to assess the impact of this process on biodiversity of bee and butterfly, he surveyed in some megacities in TEA. As a result, nearly 60% of respondents were not allowed bees to live in cities because of the risk of their children, but most of them agreed that bees have a right to exist in their natural environment. He also spent much time on talking about the butterfly diversity in urban areas that were divided into four microhabitats. The findings indicated that urbanization has negative impacts on such organism diversity, and recommended a need from both scientific research and public intersts to preserve the natural diversity. 

To sum up, the seminar was short but so attractive to any participants who are working on wildlife biodiversity and conservation, and now living in a megacity, Hanoi Capital, where the urbanization has been increasing significantly that need further investigations into diversity of the natural life. We hope that a corporation in research and training will be established in near future.

Here are some photos from the seminar:

Figs 1,2: Prof. John’s presentation and discussion

Figs 3,4: Dr. Sing’s presentation and discussion

Fig. 5. Group photo at Faculty of Biology

@ Department of Zoology (HNUE)