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Where the rubber meets the garden

Nature volume 457, pages 246–247 (2009)Cite this article

China's leading conservation centre is facing down an onslaught of rubber plantations. Jane Qiu reports from Jinghong.

With a combination of carefully groomed landscapes and the natural splendour of tropical rainforests, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) in China's southwestern Yunnan province is renowned for its exceptional beauty (see map). The 900-hectare garden, which has a collection of 11,700 plant species, is the Chinese Academy of Sciences' flagship institute for conservation research. Around it, however, the forests have increasingly been being replaced by row upon row of rubber trees; from the air, they look like gigantic mazes hemming in the conservation centre.

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  1. Jane Qiu
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Qiu, J. Where the rubber meets the garden. Nature 457, 246–247 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/457246a

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