For the period of its existence the Institute has passed a big and bright way, becoming the leading scientific institution of ecological and geographical profile in the northeast of China. Developing together with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, he absorbed the best academic traditions, formed a large scientific school on the study of the natural environment and natural economic systems, created a powerful scientific and organizational structure for obtaining new fundamental knowledge in the field of geography and agroecology. The scientists of the Institute have successfully accumulated experience and results of long-term fundamental research in studying and solving applied problems of development and arrangement of already mastered and developed territories, searching and justifying ecologically adapted options for nature management, economic and environmental planning for the use of certain parts of the region. The aim of such planning is to maximize the efficient and rational use of the resource potential of the territory and preserve and restore some of its functionally significant natural components that ensure sustainable social and ecological and economic development of the region, and the comfort of living of the local population.In this regard, a very interesting directions of research should be noted conducted at the Institute for the study of urban ecosystems, whose task is to optimize human living conditions in populated areas, to increase the degree of habitat comfort by socially and environmentally harmonious combination in these complex systems of urban and natural components .

Successes and efforts of the institute are aimed at obtaining new and claimed values in the field of geography and agroecology, contributing to the successful solution of agricultural production problems, as well as in other sectors of the economy of the region and the whole country; they have been properly evaluated and supported by the state.In recent decades, the funding of the institute and, above all, of scientific research and analytical and experimental base, a greenhouse economy, has increased substantially.The Institute moved from a small building in Changchun to a well-equipped spacious office, including laboratory and technical facilities in the suburbs of a scientific town with dormitories for trainees and graduate students, residential multi-storey buildings, a fine dining room for the staff and guests of the institute and daily transport communication with the city. The territory of the scientific town of the Institute is very extensive, has been successfully landscaped and designed and has a great potential for development.

The Institute of Water and Ecology Problems of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences has longstanding creative ties with the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.First of all, they are united by a desire to study natural processes that shape the modern landscape appearance of our territories, as well as cause and effect relationships in the processes of transformation of natural ecosystems under the influence of human activities.This is extremely important to know and take into account when developing tactics and strategies for the regionally adapted social and ecological and economic sustainable development of the regions.Sometimes the interaction between institutions is conditioned by the need to address some narrow but significant tasks for the Chinese and Russian sides.In particular, at present, the problem that is very topical for the Chinese side is the restoration of previously destroyed wetland ecosystems, which play an extremely important role in ensuring the water and carbon balance of the territory, the conservation of wetlands and their biological diversity.Russian and Chinese scientists are working together to find the most appropriate solutions to this problem.

The Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology in Changchun, the Institute of Water and Environmental Problems in Khabarovsk and the Pacific Institute of Geography in Vladivostok regularly and alternately conduct Russian-Chinese conferences in the above cities, the main purpose of which is the exchange of received scientific information and discussion of the most important and interesting for scientists questions, having both a fundamental and an applied nature.These conferences are the guarantee of successful creative cooperation and friendship of scientists from research institutes of the two countries.

On the eve of the 60th Anniversary we wish the staff of the Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology an inexhaustible energy, creative longevity, great successes and prospects for further development, the demand for scientific work and its results, public recognition of the necessity and importance of the institute's activities, and also health and happiness to all employees of the Institute. All the best.

Director of IWEP FEB RAS,

M.V. Kryukova,Doctor of biological sciences,

Scientific director of the Institute,

Prof. B.A.Voronov,Corresponding Member of RAS,

and the stuff of IWEP FEB RAS

22.06.2018