ATBC members Francis Brearley and Greg Goldsmith, as well as other tropical ecologists are working with a consortium called the #SciFund Challenge in order to harness the power of crowdfunding to fund their scientific research.  Crowdfunding works through the public funding of projects through many small donations solicited over the internet. It has become a major way to fund projects in the arts and journalism, but is only now being extended to the sciences. The first round of the #SciFund Challenge raised over $70,000 dollars for over 30 projects.

• Crowdfunding is proving to be a powerful means by which to fund research and reach a large public audience for science outreach. We encourage you to visit the website and spread the word through your social networks!

The #SciFund Challenge is an organization of scientists from around the world that want to connect their research to YOU. During the month of May, 75 scientists are campaigning to raise awareness and funding for their research. Want to be part of #SciFund?

Tropicalbio.org is launching a new webpage category : Chronicles. We start by publishing an essay by Jaboury Ghazoul, Editor-in-Chief of the journal Biotropica. He wrote : "Alexander von Humboldt, among the first and most daring of European naturalist explorers of the tropical regions, chose to write his monumental Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Year 1799-1804 in French [...] despite German being his native language. Why French?..." To know why, read it !

Asian Pacific chapter of ATBC held a very successful meeting from 24 to 27 March, 2012, at Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of Chinese Academy of Science (XTBG), in Yunnan, China. The theme of the fifth annual chapter meeting was  “Understanding and mitigating the impacts of global change in tropical Asia”, was addressed. A total of 174 registered participants from 20 countries presented 116 oral presentations and 29 posters addressing wide ranging topics from biogeographical patterns of biodiversity, future of taxonomy, forest dynamics, functional traits, plant-animal interactions, ecosystem ecology of tropical plantations, human dimensions in conservation issues, among others (see news release by XTBG). In conjunction with the meeting, XTBG also hosted a full-day strategy committee meeting to initiate the ATBC’s effort to synthesize “research priority in tropical biology and conservation for 10 years” in collaboration with the Organization for Tropical Studies (OTS). The committee ran a survey among the meeting participants and held an evening open forum to solicit broad inputs.  XTBG was a graceful and competent host in every aspect of the meeting, from the warm welcome given by its Director Chen during the open ceremony through the final farewell party. At the farewell party, Dr. Chitiyon Savini and Dr. Anthony Laynam were announced as the new AP chapter chair and secretary, respectively, while outgoing chapter chair, Dr. Mochamed (Didi) Indrawn (right photo © K. Kitajima), announced that he will lead the effort to organize the next year’s annual chapter meeting in Banda Aceh (Sumatra), Indonesia, tentatively scheduled for 18 to 22 March, 2013.

Jin Chen (XTBG) , John Kress (ATBC ED) and Richard Corlett (ATBC president) (© K. Kitajima)