gdri-ehede

Spring Mission at Baoxing (宝兴县) and HeiZhuGou (黑竹沟)

Patrick Giraudoux — 2026-04-11T08:00:28Z

LWMEH participants: Profs. Li Li and Patrick Giraudoux, with Tang HeiXia

24-26 March : Accompanied by Mr Xue Kang (薛康), initial contact with the authorities in Ya'an (雅安) and a visit to the BiFengXia (碧峰峡) Chinese Giant Panda Research and Conservation Centre, where 73 pandas are kept, followed by a visit to Muping (穆坪), the place where Armand David (1826–1900) lived and where he introduced a large number of species to science, including the giant panda and the golden monkey, Rhinopithecus roxellana. A collaboration between the LWMEH and the county is being planned.

27 March : lecture at the Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences : "Biodiversity, water, food, health, climate: everything is connected. The IPBES Nexus Assessment."

30 March : lecture at the Leshan Normal University : "Conservation of the Black-and-White snub-nosed monkey, ecotourism and Museums : what are the challenges?"

30 March - 2 april : Guided by Mr Zhu Quan (朱荃), a visit to the HeiZhuGou Nature Reserve in Ebian Yi Autonomous County, where the giant panda population is estimated at 53, and red panda and leopard are still present.

3 April :

Meeting with Mr Sun Qian (孙前) in Chengdu, author of several books on the life of Armand David
Meeting with Wen Hao and his team, from Xinjiang Medical University, in preparation for the June mission

From Mount Emei to Besançon: Leshan Normal University visits UMLP

Patrick Giraudoux — 2025-09-27T06:22:06Z

27 septembre 2029

The Sino-French laboratory Wildlife Management and Ecosystem Health (WiMEH), which was established in Kunming, Yunnan, in 2012, was transferred to Leshan Normal University, Sichuan in 2023. This represents both the outcome of over 13 years of collaborative work and new perspectives for conservation ecology. New research into Tibetan macaques and wildlife tourism has begun on Mount Emei.

From 25 to 26 September, a delegation from Leshan Normal University, led by General Secretary Liu Jin and including General Secretary of the School of Life Sciences Yang Yi, Director of the Bamboo Forestry Technology Innovation Institute and Lab of Bamboo Disease Prevention and Resource Development Yang Yaojun, Director/Professor of the Department of Information Technology and Experimental Support Liu Caiming, Director/Professor of WiMEH Li Li, and Former President of the Federation of Chinese Students and Scholars in France and External Affairs Coordinator of WiMEH Zhang Yijiang, visited the University Marie and Louis Pasteur.

On the first day, the delegation discovered the Chrono-Environnement laboratory and the teaching facilities of the Faculty of Sciences and Techniques. The delegation was welcomed by the lab's director, Émilie Gauthier, who was joined by Eve Afonso, Patrick Giraudoux, Frédéric Gimbert, Hugo Sentenac and Estelle Franc.

The international Master EMME (Ecology, Monitoring and Management of Ecosystems) of the UMLP was also presented by Francis Raoul, its director.

On the second day, a visit to the Centre de Linguistique Appliquée (CLA) was organised, where we met its director Lucas Levien, Lucie Guy and Florian Chapey. Opportunities to study French and Chinese were presented.

A meeting was then held with Hugues Daussy, the President of the University Marie and Louis Pasteur, at the President's Building, where we met the vice-president of the international outreach, Samir Jemei, the director of European international relations and Francophonie, Marieke Steenbergen, and the International Cooperation Officer (Asia, Africa, Oceania) Nouhaïla El Aouad. The two universities signed an agreement of cooperation on this occasion.

The teams will meet again in about ten days in Leshan, China, for field work and the Sino-French conference on One Health and Conservation.

Sino-French conference One Health and conservation: meeting the challenge

Patrick Giraudoux — 2025-09-11T06:42:55Z

The Sino-French laboratory of wildlife management and ecosystem health (WiMEH) organises a conference on One Health and conservation in Leshan from October 12 to 15.

The world faces interlinked and mutually reinforcing crises of biodiversity loss, water and food insecurity, health and climate change. The IPBES Nexus Assessment has provided evidence that addressing them in separate silos is ineffective and counterproductive. One Health is a framework jointly endorsed by the World Health Organization, the World Organisation for Animal Health, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme. It affirms the nexus between human, animal, plant and ecosystem health.

Close to Mt Emei National Reserve at the Leshan Normal University, the conference will gather world specialists to address how solutions to biological conservation issues are necessarily nexus-based and how the One Health framework is relevant to breaking down siloed thinking and finding co-benefits in promoting the protection of biodiversity and the health of people, animals, plants and ecosystems.

Clic on the panel below to get pictures of the conference


Programme

Contact: Professor Li Li (李丽)， WiMEH， Leshan Normal University, China

See also:

Professor Li Li's visit at Chrono-environnement, Besançon

Patrick Giraudoux — 2024-07-12T06:59:05Z

The exchanges in person have been interrupted for more than 4 years by the COVID19 pandemic, although cooperation continued via mails and visioconferences. Meanwhile, the Laboratory of Wildlife Management and Ecosystem Health has moved from YUFE, Kunming, Yunnan to Leshan Normal University, Sichuan, with new study fields added to the GDRI EHEDE network (see e.g. Tibetan Macaque on Mont Emei).

Professor Li Li was in Besançon from June 22 to July 7 to prepare the visit of a high-level delegation from Leshan Normal University to Besançon, at University of Franche-Comté, possibly in December 2024, the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two universities, and to discuss current and future research programmes with Chrono-environment researchers.

It was also an opportunity to visit some landscapes of Franche-Comté and the Vosges, including Arbois, where Louis Pasteur carried out some of his research in his family home and to meet former doctoral students with whom Li Li worked during her sabbatical in Besançon in 2011-2012.

Tibetan macaque

Patrick Giraudoux — 2024-03-25T09:18:57Z

The Tibetan macaque, Macaca thibetana, also known as the Chinese stump-tailed macaque or Milne-Edwards' macaque has been described in 1870 by Alphonse Milne-Edwards of the National Natural History Museum (Paris). It is the largest macaque species, with males weighing up to almost 20 kg.

The species is listed near-threatened by IUCN but some populations thrive in areas such as Mount Emei, Sichuan, where groups of the western subspecies M. thibetana thibetana are common and fed by tourists and Buddhist clerics around temples.


Tibetan macaques waiting for food at XiXiangChi temple (2040 m asl)

This situation of relatively close contact between humans and wild primates raises a number of questions about its implications for human and animal health and population management.


Looking for food, including in plastic bags at XiXiangChi temple

November 2023: first recognition at Mount Emei, China terrestrial ecosystem research station and tourist area

Pr Li Li (李丽)，Tim Slate, Eve Afonso and Patrick Giraudoux had a first assessment of the monkey feeding area near the China Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Station at WuXiangGang (五显岗) close to LongMenCun，龙门村 (103.33E 29.52N) on November 8. In addition to the natural food they find in the forest, the monkeys are fed with peanuts wrapped in plastic bags and fruits thrown away by tourists.

March 2024: recognition treck from the heights of HeiShuiCun（黑水村）to Linjue temple (灵谷寺)

A two-day trek (March 13-14) started from the heights of HeiShuiCun 黑水村 (1100 m asl), from temple to temple and rest stations up to LinJueSi (灵谷寺) (2390 m asl). The night was spent at XiXiangChi temple, 洗象池寺 (2040 m asl) where the first group of monkeys was observed. Throughout the trek, there are many signs warning trekkers about how to behave with monkeys, which can steal bags for food or be aggressive in order to get bags from them.


Main points visited along the trek

Then we made a quick visit by cable car to the Golden Summit（金顶） at 3079 m asl, which is visited by up to 50,000 tourists and believers every day. Signs also warn tourists about feeding monkeys and their behaviour.

This illustrates a contrasting and contradictory situation where the presence of familiar monkeys attracts tourists to the area, creating a wildlife tourism economy, and the risks that familiarity could bring in terms of contact between tourists and monkeys (bites, exchange of pathogens, etc.) and the impact of feeding on the monkey population (overweight, density, etc.).

This visit provided us an invaluable opportunity to assess the situation on the ground, to evaluate the accessibility of monkey home range (steep slopes prevent full accessibility), to clarify the research questions that can be addressed on this basis and to detail the corresponding roadmap.

Participants (alphabetic order): 巴教授 (Patrick Giraudoux), 郭剑英(Guo JianYing)，郭玉红 (Guo YuHong), 李丽 (Li Li), 李前进 (Li QiangJing), 刘洪江(Liu HongJiang)，孙永兴 (Sun YongXing), 王璐 (Wang Lu)，guided by 张可俊 (Zhang KeJun) and 梁东 (Liang Dong).

A conference was finally organized by the French Consulate in Chengdu

November 2024: second field recognition at Mount Emei and distinguished professorship awards

From November 4 to 15, 2024, Drs. Eve Afonso, Frédéric Gimbert and Pr. Patrick Giraudoux embarked to China with Pr Li Li to conduct fieldwork on the ecology of Mt Emei Tibetan monkeys.

Fieldwork in Mount Emei: bridging conservation and tourism

Over two days, they explored the unique gradient of habituation among macaques, ranging from relatively wild groups to those highly dependent on tourist feeding. These observations were crucial in understanding how human activities, such as tourism and agriculture, shape macaque behavior and their ecosystems. They also noted significant environmental challenges, such as plastic pollution stemming from tourist litter. Macaques were regularly observed eating food directly from plastic packaging, raising concerns about potential health risks.

Collaborations with park rangers like Liang Dong and reserve managers such as Zhang KeJun were instrumental in this fieldwork. They provided invaluable insights into local ecosystems and logistical support for planned sampling phases. These efforts will help better understand pollution's impact on wildlife and guide conservation strategies for the region.

Recognition as Distinguished Professors at Leshan Normal University

Dr Eve Afonso and Prof Patrick Giraudoux have received the title of Distinguished Professors from Leshan Normal University. This honor reflects the growing collaboration between LNU and University of Franche-Comté.

This recognition strengthens the foundation for the Sino-French laboratory, "Wildlife Management and Ecosystem Health", now settled in LNU and positions it as a pivotal center for research in Sichuan Province. Plans are underway to expand its impact through new partnerships, funding, and recruitment.

Sharing our vision at the French consulate in Chengdu

The Consulate General of France in Chengdu, Guillaume Delvallée, and the Scientific and academic attaché Samuel Liégeois, provided a platform to share our work with a broader audience in the context of the Franco-Chinese Environment Month. Dr. Eve Afonso delivered a conference presentation, “Human-Wildlife Interactions and the Socioeconomic Impacts of Ecological Changes,” outlining our team's research efforts and future objectives. Dr Liu Peng 刘鹏 of the Haïnan Normal University, presented conservations issues of wild Asian Elephants in Yunnan and Haïnan primates

The event underscored the mutual benefits of cross-cultural academic partnerships and set the stage for a potential "One Health" symposium in 2025.

March 2025: Field (Mt Emei) and lab (Shanghai) visits

The aim of this mission (from March 22 to April 6) was to expand our knowledge of the Mt Emei field and evaluate laboratories in Shanghai for DNA and plastic analysis. Dr Eve Afonso and Dr Frédéric Gimbert, as well as Prs. Patrick Giraudoux and Li Li formed the core of the team, which was joined by Prof. Zhang Li for the fieldwork.

A team from Sichuan Radio and Television accompanied the researcher group during its stay in Leshan.

From March 30 to April 1, a number of top-notch Shanghai-based research facilities were visited, with the idea being to see what kind of analysis capacities might exist.

In Chengdu, on April 2, we also met the director of the Science and Technology department of the Sichuan Province joined by Samuel Liégeois, Conseiller Scientifique et Culturel of the French Consulate, and on April 4, Zou Xiao Gong (邹小工)'s team, who is in charge of publishing a book entitled All in the Same Boat on Patrick Giraudoux's 30 years of research in China.

A conference was finally given on April 3 at the French consulate in Chengdu.

October 2025: WiMEH conference, mission to Mt Emei, Mu Chuan, Wawu shan and Chengdu

Multi-targets mission :

Sino-French Conference One Health and Conservation, meeting the challenge 12-15 October, Leshan Normal University
Field visits to :
- Mt Emei
- Mu Chuan
- Wawu Shan
Conference organized by the French Consulate, Chengdu
Launching of the book "all in the same boat" at the 25 Tianfu book festival in Chengdu

A CGTN team accompanied us throughout the entire mission.

Mt Emei, 8-10 October
Third visit to Mt Emei. Participants : Eve Afonso, Simon Calla, Frédéric Gimbert, Patrick Giraudoux, Guo Yuhong, Kang HaoRan (康浩然), Li Li, Liang Dong. The aim was to complete the precedent surveys in areas not visited yet.

October 8: farmland undergoing some monkey raids were visited in Emei Nan Shan (1880 m alt.)
October 9-10: the trek stretched from Wu Xiang Gang (620 m alt.) to Lei Dong Ping (2380 m alt.), with an overnight stop at Yu Xiang Shi (1678 m alt.).

Mu Chuan, 11 October
Participants : Eve Afonso, Simon Calla, Frédéric Gimbert, Patrick Giraudoux, Kang HaoRan, Li Li.

We met later, on the 15th evening in Leshan, Chen ShenZhi (陈申芝) first secretary of Xinqiao village to discuss issues posed by monkey raids.

Wawu shan, 12 October

Participants : Eve Afonso, Simon Calla, Frédéric Gimbert, Patrick Giraudoux, Li Li, Ma ChaoHong (马朝洪).

Welcome at the Sichuan Publishing House, Chengdu, October 16
Participants : Eve Afonso, Frédéric Gimbert, Patrick Giraudoux, Li Li, Long YongChen, Hugo Sentenac, Zhang LiYuan and her team

Conference organized by the French Consulate, Chengdu, October 16

Participants : Eve Afonso, Frédéric Gimbert, Patrick Giraudoux, Li DiQiang, Li Li, Samuel Liégeois, Long YongChen, Hugo Sentenac, etc.
Welcome by Zhang LiYuan and her team

Launching of the book "all in the same boat" at the 25 Tianfu book festival in Chengdu; October 17

Participants: Eve Afonso, Chen XingWang, Frédéric Gimbert, Patrick Giraudoux, Li DiQiang, Li Li, Li TiaoYing, Samuel Liégeois, Long YongChen, Hugo Sentenac, Qi XinWei, Wen Hao, Xue Kang, Zhang LiYuan and her team, Zou XiaoGong (邹小工).


All in the same boat trailer

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Launching ceremony

Post-COVID, missions to China resume

Patrick Giraudoux — 2023-12-09T12:46:12Z

Although cooperation continued through video conferencing and e-mail, travel to and from China and meetings in person were suspended for four years during COVID-19. From 6 to 17 November, a first mission was organised to take stock of the changes that have taken place in France and China since COVID and reorganize common works. Prof. Li Li (李丽) managed the content of this mission. Participants for the Chrono-environment lab were Eve Afonso and Patrick Giraudoux

Leshan Normal University

Prof Li Li, who has recently been appointed to Leshan Normal University, will relocate the Laboratory of Wildlife Management and Ecosystem Health, which was initially established at Yunnan University of Finance and Economics in 2012. The conditions under which this can be supported by our international network and how to foster future collaborations between Leshan Normal University and the University of Franche-Comté were discussed with the staff of the Leshan Normal University, President Liu Jing (刘进), Vice-president Jiang Tao (江瑫), Prof. Tang Mei (唐梅) Dean of the School of Life Science, Prof. Liu HongJiang (刘洪江) Vice-dean of the School of Tourism and Dir. of human resources Huang Kai (黄凯).

Mount Emei (峨嵋山)

Welcomed by dir. Tang YongJin (汤永进), Emei Mountain and the China terrestrial ecosystem research station were visited with a view to extending ongoing research in Yunnan on black-and-white snub-nosed monkeys and the impact of wildlife tourism to Tibetan macaque populations.

Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve

Dir Yang Yun (杨云) organized a warm welcome and the visit of several field stations:

the elephant valley, where the situation observed by the GDRI EHEDE before COVID19 was updated
Guan Ping (关评) long-term research station on Asian wild elephant, where in depth discussions were held with technical staff
an organic tea plantation under tree cover at NanNuo (南糯)

Conferences

Several presentations were given at each site on the work being done on the snub-nosed monkeys in Yunnan, and on the concept of One Health and its biodiversity component.

Conference organised by the French consulate in Chengdu on the 18th of March 2024

Read more...

Towards an objective definition of optimal habitat for small mammal species

Patrick Giraudoux — 2023-08-17T20:09:19Z

How to define objectively the optimal habitat of small mammal species ? This is the question addressed in an article published in PLoS One by researchers from the French-British-Chinese network, which began working together in 1994.

Marston, C., Raoul, F., Rowland, C., Quéré, J.-P., Feng, X., Lin, R., Giraudoux, P., 2023. Mapping small mammal optimal habitats using satellite-derived proxy variables and species distribution models. PLOS ONE 18, e0289209.

Small mammals play an important role in terrestrial ecosystems, dispersing seeds, modifying soil structure and vegetation composition. They are also the prey of many predators, and are therefore often keystone species in these communities. Some species undergo population peaks (outbreaks), which can have a major impact on agricultural production and the transmission of pathogens (see e.g. Arvicola terrestris in the Jura massif).

It has been shown that those population peaks are more likely in landscape with larger proportion of favourable habitat, also named 'optimal habitat', in a landscape. To predict outbreaks and the risks associated with them, it is therefore essential to be able to objectively define the optimal habitat for each species of concern. There are a number of methodological difficulties with this definition. When long-term studies cannot be carried out (emergency, lack of funding, etc.), data are based on snapshot sampling. Thus, multi-annual variations in abundance (cyclic or not) may lead to find that a species is absent from its optimal habitat (e.g. during a phase of low density), and conversely, during population peaks, the presence of a species may be observed in unfavourable habitats, due to the spillover of populations from genuinely favourable habitats. As a result, the optimal habitat for each species is more often than not defined by 'expert opinion', which can be a source of subjectivity.

The aim of this study is to use measurements derived from satellite data to define the optimal habitats for species sampled by heterogeneous means (specific traps, index transects), which is often required by field constraints. Satellite data quantifying the characteristics and dynamics of the landscape according to their spatial and temporal variations in reflectance (particularly seasonal) were obtained from GoogleEarth. The data on small mammals were obtained in the Narati area, Tian Shan, China, in September 2006 and in the Sary Mogul area, Kyrgyzstan, in September 2014 during sampling campaigns carried out as part of a French-Sino-British cooperation funded by the US Institutes of Public Health and the Wellcome trust. Statistically significant satellite variables were selected using the "boruta" algorithm, and their association with the distribution of various small mammal species was modelled using "random forests".

Although this approach does not completely overcome all the possible biases mentioned above, it does define optimal habitat by a combination of dynamic landscape variables accessible from satellites. This means that we can move from a definition of optimal habitat based on "expert opinion" to one based on objective measurement of the distribution of small mammal species themselves. The study shows that there are significant differences between the two types of estimation.

Contacts:

Patrick Giraudoux, professor emeritus of ecology, Chrono-environment, France
Christopher Marston, Ecological Remote Sensing Specialist at UK Center for Ecology and Hydrology, Lancaster, UK.

Thinking the pandemic...

Patrick Giraudoux — 2020-05-06T09:25:06Z

Several research teams from the Bourgogne Franche-Comté universities have gathered to organize an online interdisciplinary seminar to reflect upon the current pandemic. Each session will also be available on a dedicated youtube channel.

The pandemic as we know it in 2020 is a total phenomenon: none of our sciences can take the measure of it on its own. Its many dimensions require all our various sciences, from the ecological context of propagation to the epidemiology of human populations and the research of a cure, from organizational and public health challenges to the assessment of social and psychological effects, for instance of massive confinement of populations, up to political, ecological, economical, informational and ethical stakes of the world as it is now. Viruses cross the boundaries of sciences, whether social, medical or of nature. They bring societies back into the socio-ecological network through which they diffuse. The new world this pandemic is bringing out will need a deeper integration of our sciences, require our capacity to frame common questions across disciplines.

Those seminars (in French) are a platform to help experts from these various sciences and disciplines create a common ground for action. All sessions are broadcasted online. The programme is here : https://mshe.univ-fcomte.fr/la-mshe/actualites/975-penser-la-pandemie.

Write to the contacts to participate live.

Podcasts on Youtube

Podcasts on Canal U

Contacts:

Arnaud Macé, professor of philosophy
Patrick Giraudoux, professor emeritus of ecology

Autumn meeting days, ShenZhen, Beijing

Patrick Giraudoux — 2019-11-07T07:12:50Z

First World Forum on Nature Conservation, ShenZhen, China 30.10-1.11

The aim of the meeting was to foster domestic and international exchange of views about Natural Reserves and protected area management in China. It was the first meeting organized by the National Forest and Grassland administration of China (NFGA), the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the People's Government of Guandong Province, with the support of the ShenZhen Municipal People's government. The CNOOC foundation, China Wildlife Conservation and China Green foundation were also co-organizers of this event.

Two IRN EHEDE members were invited and gave a presentation:

Eve Afonso	Can wildlife conservation and ecotourism be conciliated? Lessons from Yunnan Snub-Nosed monkeys
Patrick Giraudoux	Wildlife monitoring in socio-ecosystems: lessons from the LTSER area Arc jurassien and the IRN EHEDE

They also participated to two side meetings:

Sino-French Bilateral Workshop on the Cooperation in the Field of Nature Conservation, organized by the Agence française de la biodiversité, AFB, and the NFGA: the aim was to exchange views about potential collaborations between Chinese and French Natural Reserves and Parks. The Chinese and French delegates were led by Zhou ZhiHua, Deputy director general of the Natural Protected Area Management office of the NFGA and Cyrille Barnerias, head of the European and International office of the AFB.
Gaoligongshan National Park management scheme evaluation, as part of an external international expert panel (Australia, France, USA).

French-Chinese scientific seminar Environment and Biodiversity, Beijing, November 4-5

A French-Chinese symposium was hold under the umbrella of the French-Chinese Commmission Mixte Science et Technologie, during the State Visit of President Macron in China. It was organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, and by the Ministry of Research and Higher Education, the CNRS and the French Embassy in China for France. The aim was to exchange about issues that will be developed at the next IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille (June 11-19, 2010) and the COP15 in Kunming (October 5-10, 2020). It covered three topics: Biodiversity and Global Change, Critical Zone, Soil Functionning, and Ecohealth. The CNRS bulletin n°30 with all the presentations is downloadable here (in French).

GDRI members presented three talks as examples of sino-french cooperation:

Patrick Giraudoux and Li Li for the GDRI EHEDE	Ecosystem health and environmental disease ecology: 25 years of Sino-French cooperation Talk summary PG	Article in the CNRS Bulletin n°30
Eve Afonso and Li Li for the GDRI EHEDE	Can wildlife conservation and ecotourism be conciliated? Lessons from Yunnan Snub-Nosed monkeys Talk summary EA	Article in the CNRS Bulletin n°30
Cécile Callou	The central role of Museum collections Talk summary CC	Article in the CNRS Bulletin n°30

Furthermore, part of Dominique Joly's presentation about CNRS infrastructures and the role of the Zones ateliers was based on GDRI works on wild Asian elephants human conflicts.


Dominique Joly's article in the CNRS bulletin n°30

Side conversations permit informal dialogue with Dominique Joly, CNRS-INEE vice-director in charge of large research infrastructures, Philippe Arnaud, the new director of the CNRS bureau in Beijing, and Philippe Grieu, Scientific Attaché of the French Embassy.

The "One Health in practice" initiative

Patrick Giraudoux — 2019-08-23T06:50:46Z

One Health in Practice is an international initiative stemming out from the collaborative work of several researchers from several Academic Institutions as

the Ethology Unit, of the Department of Biology at the University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
theDepartment of Ecosystem and Public Health of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada
the Chrono-environnement Department University Bourgogne Franche-Comté/CNRS usc INRA, France
the Department of Biology at The King's University, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Our Mission is to face One Health problems with an evidence-based approach.
Our Vision is based on developing and applying cutting-edge research in biology, animal and human medicine, ecology and social sciences to face real world problems.

At present, we have two active Projects:

Visit us at www.onehealthinpractice.org