Prof. ZHANG Xianfeng gave lectures for primary school students.

The award ceremony of the Fourth Hubei Government Award of Environment Protection was held at Hongshan Assembly Hall on June 2, 2017. Nine units and eight individuals were honored with the Hubei government award of Environment Protection. Prof. ZHANG Xianfeng from Institute of Hydrobiology (IHB) of Chinese Academy of Sciences was honored with the individual award.   

At present, Prof. Zhang serves as the director of Museum for Aquatic Organisms at IHB. He is the leader of the science popularization association under Chinese Academy of Sciences and vice president of Wuhan Baiji Conservation Foundation.    

Prof. Zhang has been engaged in the study of the conservation of the endangered aquatic animals. He either led or participated in several studies on the ecology of Yangtze cetaceans, breeding biology and conservation biology. He participated in the designing and establishment of the first national nature reserve of endangered aquatic species, and joined the saving actions of the Yangtze finless porpoises. He also led the formulation of the two industry standards issued by the Ministry of Agriculture and participated in formulating several standards.    

As a researcher in the conservation of natural resources, Prof. Zhang contributed a lot to the popularization of protecting the nature. He held lectures at universities, middle and primary schools and communities, trained teachers, fishery administrative staff, fishermen and volunteers at training classes held by the relevant authoritative departments. He held exhibitions with relevant organizations or NGOs and held lectures to explain issues related to environment protection.    

In recent years, Prof. Zhang organized volunteers to compile reading books on environment protection for kids and school students. As the chief editor, he compiled two textbooks on environment education and nine reading books on environment education. Besides, he cooperated with other authors and published three books on the protection of aquatic animals, and edited and produced four telefilms. He makes full use of new social media means such as wechat, app, VR to popularize the knowledge of aquatic biodiversity and resources.    

Hubei Government Award of Environment Protection is the highest government award in the field of environment protection in Hubei. It is given to recognize units and individuals who made outstanding achievements in the construction of ecological civilization and environment protection.