From July 1st to 5th, the 10th Landscape Ecology World Congress was held in the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy. Dr. Jie Gong from the College of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Lanzhou University, participated in this conference and made an academic report, as the convener of a parallel session.

The break-out session with the theme of ‘Scoping with future challenges in mountainous landscapes’ was convened jointly by Dr. Gong, Dr. Uta Schirpke from the University of Innsbruck, German, professor Genxu Wang from the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS and Dr. Ulrike Tappeiner from the Institute for Alpine Environment. Dr. Gong made an oral presentation on ‘linking ecosystem services and landscape ecological risk into adaptive management in a mountain-basin area in western China’ and had a heated discussion with international colleagues. They did agree on a brief plan of carrying out cooperative research in the Alps and the mountains of western China.