The major Soil, Water Conservation and Desertification Prevention relies on the key discipline Ecology in Zhejiang Province. There are 17 teaching and administrative employees, including seven professors, four associate professors and six lecturers, of which there are 15 doctors and 10 master tutors, one distinguished professor in Zhejiang Province (Qianjiang Scholar), and one “young and middle-aged” Academic Leader for Colleges and Universities belonging to the second-tier talent of the “151” program in Zhejiang Province.

Taking the National Key Laboratory Cultivation Base, the Terrestrial Ecosystem Positioning Research Network of State Forestry Administration,Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory and provincial-level Innovation Team as platforms, and using ecology, forestry, botany, plant physiology, agricultural resource utilization, biology, natural resources and conservation as the main basic theories, the major combines the professional theories of ecological engineering, soil and water conservation, desertification prevention engineering, restoration ecology, ecological planning and landscape ecology with the modern new theories and technology of Soil and Water Conservation and Desertification Prevention, and centers on the key issues of the regional forestry and ecological systems as the research emphasis, in order to form a number of research directions such as coastal protection projects, forestry ecological engineering and desertification prevention engineering, each with their own discipline characteristics and advantages.

In recent years, by virtue of good platforms, and since Zhejiang Province is located in China’s South-East coastal area where there are many mountains and less land, a large population density and strong human disturbance has taken root, leading to serious water and soil erosion and other outstanding ecological problems in the region. Thus, it focuses on the construction of a forestry ecosystem in Zhejiang Province, and pays attention to all of the research already conducted on aspects such as the theory and technology of restoration of degraded forest ecosystems, breeding of resistant varieties for coast protection forest, and the construction of urban-ecological forest systems. Currently, the discipline has taken charge of more than 20 projects, including sub-projects of the “973” Program for the Ministry of Science and Technology, major international cooperation projects from the Ministry of Science and Technology, platform projects for the Ministry of Science and Technology, sub-projects of the Major Scientific and Technological Base project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, provincial-level Major Special Scientific Research projects, projects of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Special Financial projects under the Central Government, for which there are more than 6 million Yuan of funds in place, and the contract funds are worth over 10 million Yuan. It has published more than 100 papers, including more than 20 papers collected by SCI and EI and more than 30 papers in first grade journals; obtained more than 10 awards at ministerial and provincial level, including one first prize and two second prizes of Zhejiang Provincial Science and Technology Awards, and two bureau-level awards. It has presided over an international seminar and a provincial academic seminar. The total value of existing instruments and equipment owned by the discipline amounts to over 3 million Yuan.