New Country Director of Future Generations China: Dr. Guangchun LeiJanuary 13, 2010

Beijing - Future Generations welcomes Guangchun Lei to be Country Director of Future Generations China. Dr. Lei will lead the organization to have greater China-wide impact in the areas of conservation and community development.

Guangchun Lei has served for two years as the Dean of the School of Nature Conservation at Beijing Forestry University and previously worked as the Senior Advisor for Asia-Pacific, the Ramsar Commission on Wetlands. Dr. Lei brings in-depth environmental experience both in China and around the world. He will continue to serve as Vice Chairman of the National Wetland Science Committee and as a member of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Dr. Guangchun Lei has been designing solutions that work for the environment and local communities for more than 25 years, first leading a wetland restoration project near his hometown in Hunan province to protect what was once China's largest freshwater lake. This initiative was among the first in China to secure major government investment in a comprehensive river basin management plan to slow wetland degradation and support communities who were once threatened by annual flooding.

Dr. Lei will be guiding two existing institutional initiatives, the Green Long March and the Pendeba Program, and working toward future strategic objectives. Already, the Green Long March involves more than 5,000 students from 50 universities in conducting environmental case studies and implementing hands-on student-led projects across China. The Pendeba Program involves local volunteers in conservation stewardship and community social development within Tibet's protected areas.

"Future Generations China," says Dr. Lei, "addresses the huge gap in the way people talk about development as separate from conservation in China. Also, the overall environmental picture around the world is getting worse because we are not addressing the issues at the right scale and at the right target group. Future Generations mission addresses the issues in a more holistic way, strengthens leadership among local communities and government, and because of this has potential to facilitate solutions on a much larger scale."


For more information or for media inquiries, please contact:
Traci Hickson, Director of Communications, by emailing: traci#future.org (For spam issue, please change # to @ before sending email)