Chinese innovator wins inaugural botanic medal in Sydney

Australia's inaugural Lachlan Macquarie Medal has been awarded to Professor Hong Deyuan from Beijing, China in recognition of his outstanding achievement in helping protect plant biodiversity.

State Environment Minister Robyn Parker applauded Professor Hong and the awarding of the medal, presented by Her Excellency Professor Marie Bashir AC CVO, Governor of New South Wales at Government House in Sydney and bestowed by the Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust.

The Medal is a newly created prestigious award for individuals who have demonstrated excellence, recognized internationally, in any aspect of modern botany: conservation, plant or environmental science, horticulture or landscape management, public education involving plants or environmental science.

Parker said Professor Hong was one of the first botanists to carry out studies on conservation biology of endangered and threatened plant species in China and a leader in Asian plants biology.

In congratulating the Chinese scientist, Ms. Parker highlighted the extraordinary diversity of Sino-Australian biology.

"Out of the 196 countries in the world, Australia and China are counted among only 12 considered to be 'megabiodiverse' - between them; they hold 20 percent of the world's native plant species," she said.

China has 31,000 native plant species about 11 percent of the world total, while Australia has 25,000 native plant species representing eight percent of the world's total.

Royal Botanic Gardens & Domain Trust Executive Director Professor David Mabberley said an important part of the Trust's new science strategy is more collaboration with Asia.

"The Asia-Pacific Region is an area of outstanding biodiversity of global significance. In between China and Australia lies the Malesian region comprising southern Thailand through Malaysia and Indonesia to Papua New Guinea with 42,000 species in all. You can see why a bond with Asian countries is critical," Professor Mabberley said.

The Lachlan Macquarie Medal honors Governor Lachlan Macquarie, who defined the land on the edge of Farm Cove as Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden on June 13, 1816; it was the nation's first botanic garden and is the site of the country's first scientific institution.

"This internationally important Medal will increase the understanding of the vital role botanic gardens and plant scientists have in conserving native plant species, not just in Australia but globally," Professor Mabberley said.

The next Lachlan Macquarie medal will not be awarded until 2014, and another will be awarded in 2016.