On November 5th, the Second Sino-France Workshop on Water Resources and Sustainable Development, co-sponsored by the State Key Laboratory of Freshwater Ecology and Biotechnology, Institute of Hydrobiology, CAS and National Research Center for Freshwater Fisheries Engineering (Wuhan) was held at the Institute of Hydrobiology, CAS. As an important part of the 2008 Cinesciences Festival, this workshop won great support from both the Consulate General of the Republic of France in Wuhan and Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Department.  

On behalf of all the co-organizers, Prof. Zhengyu HU, Deputy Director of IHB expressed warm welcome to all the participants from China and France. Mr. Michel Freymuth, French Consul General to Wuhan attended the workshop and made a keynote speech on behalf of the French side and Mr. Chunbai ZHENG, Vice President of Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Department also made a keynote speech on behalf of the Chinese side. The opening ceremony was hosted by Prof. Jiashou LIU of IHB.  

This workshop included three themes, i.e. water quality, sustainable development of water resourcres, and sustainable development of agriculture. Seven academic reports were presented at the workshop by both Chinese and French experts, among whom Prof. Hongzhu WANG and Professor Jiashou LIU from IHB made an academic report respectively.  

Over 200 experts, scholars and graduate students from different universities and companies from both home and abroad took part in this Workshop. These universities and companies are Claude Bernard University Lyon I, University of Bourgogne, Paul Sabatier University-Toulouse III, Aix-Marseille University, INSA Lyon, Pasteur Institute, CSTB (Centre Scientifique et Technique du Batiment), ADEME ( Agence de l'Environnement et de la Ma？trise de l'Energie), AFD (Agence Fran？aise de Développement), University of Savoie, Re-Sources Company from France, and Institute of Hydrobiology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, Huazhong Agricultural University, Huazhong Normal University, Wuhan University of Technology, China University of Geosciences, Hubei University, Xiangfan Vocational and Technical College, Hubei Institute of Environmental Science, Institute of Hydroecology, Hubei Daming Aquatic Science and Technology Co., Ltd.  

Through Prof. Yongding LIU’s unremitting efforts, this workshop was successfully held for the purpose of proposing more concrete framework for the establishment of the laboratories on environmental aspect in both China and France. At present, China and France are planning to conduct cooperation in the areas of water pollution control, soil contamination, biodiversity, etc. and to apply for relevant research projects and to jointly educate graduates students so as to bring about mutual benefits to both countries.