Southwest State Laboratory for Biodiversity under Construction in Yunnan Province

Southwest State Laboratory for Biodiversity started construction in Kunming on September 28, 2009 in Kunming city, capital of Yunnan province in southwest China.

Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Government of Yunnan Province initiated to build the laboratory back in 2005. They each invested 1.1 million RMB (or $14 million) in the project.

The laboratory will focus on the evolution of biological diversity, and carry out comprehensive studies on biodiversity protection and sustainable utilization. It aims to become a world-class biodiversity sustainable development research center and help investigate key issues in biology protection.

The laboratory will be managed by the Kunming Institute of Zoology, CAS. It was established in collaboration with Yunnan University, and with the support from other CAS laboratories and institutes such as the Lab of Cell and Molecular Evolution at the CAS Institute of Zoology, State Key Lab of Phytochemistry and Plant Resources in West China at the CAS Kunming Institute of Botany, and the CAS Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden.

Yunnan is China's biologically most diverse province. It is known as the "kingdom of bio-resources" and the "treasury of biology gene."