China has many botanical gardens with abundant plant diversity. For the purpose of better promoting plant conservation and biodiversity education in Chinese botanical gardens and carrying out projects in China, the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) decided to establish an office in China beginning in 2007. Due to the influence and status of the South China Botanical Garden (SCBG), BGCI decides to set up the office in SCBG.

Recently BGCI recruited an officer publicly from the whole country in order to assist in conducting the programmes in China. As a result, Ms. WEN Xiangying, a senior engineer coming from SCBG, was successfully recruited from dozens of candidates. In the end of June, Wen went to the KewGardens in Britain, the headquarters of BGCI, to sign an agreement and accept the relevant training.

Established in 1987, BGCI is one of the largest international organizations in the world for plant conservation, environmental education and sustainable development. The main goal of BGCI is to conserve plant diversity to ensure the future of human beings and the natural world. Currently over 800 botanical gardens and research institutions, including SouthChinaBotanical Garden are BGCI members, which represent 120 countries and regions. In April 2007, BGCI successfully hosted the third Global Botanic Gardens Congress in Wuhan, central China, which was the first time for such meeting to be held in Asia.