Yan Xie

Yan Xie has 19 years experiences working on biodiversity conservation in China. Is now an associate research professor in the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She led a research group on Nature Conservation Legislation and promoted the Chinese government to issue a comprehensive Protected Area Law during 2012~2013, and the work has been highly regarded as an important event in the conservation history of China. Due to the work, she received the SEE-TNC Environmental Award. As the China Country Program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) 2005-1012, she led the WCS China Programme working in Changtang and Pamir in western China, Amur tiger habitat in north-east China, Chinese alligator and Yangtze giant softshell turtle, and a long-term programme on controlling wildlife trade. She served as coordinator of biodiversity studies under the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, a high level governmental advisory body during 1994-2005, where she made a great contribution to the country’s conservation policy. Yan also led the evaluation of more than 10,000 species for the China Red List. She is a prolific writer with many important conservation books under her belt including A Guide to the Mammals of China published in 2008, Bioinvasion and Biosecurity of China in 2009 and Biodiversity Atlas of China in 2009. She was the Vice-Chair of East Asia, World Commission of Protected Area, and now a Steering Committee Member of Species Survival Commission/IUCN.