On May 30th, the "ANSO Association for Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk-Road Civilization Development " (ATES) has successfully held the "Culture evolution and environmental changes along the Ancient Silk Road" seminar. 

This seminar was mainly hosted by the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the China Nation Silk Museum. Caused by the prevention of epidemic COVID-2019, this seminar set up the main venue in Beijing and a branch venue at Lanzhou University, and also conducted online at the same time. 

More than 80 representatives from the Bureau of International Cooperation Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ANSO Secretariat, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences and the ATES have participated in the meeting.

Director ZHAO Feng of China National Silk Museum, also the Secretary-General of the Academic Committee of SRW, announced a speech about the achievements of NSM and IASSRT and introduced the background of holding the Silk Road Week. 

The contacts of the five working groups of the ATES reported their research objectives, achievements, and work plan in 2020 respectively, and consensus has been reached through the following discussions. They all believe that although some problems, such as the lacking of research foundations, complex geopolitics and religion, and insufficient mutual trust are exist in the "Belt and Road" region. However, opportunities always accompany with difficulties. 

This international cooperation project and the ATES mainly focus on the environmental changes in the Ancient Silk Road region, and with the integration of natural science and humanities, both of which will play an active role in the understanding between people and mutual trust in the Ancient Silk Road region.

Academician Fahu Chen, the head of the "ANSO Association for Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk-Road Civilization Development" (ATES) thank the leaders, experts, and other attendees for their comments and suggestions for the project and the alliance, and concluded that through the execution of project and development of the alliance, they will mainly focus on important scientific issues, such as human diffusion, agricultural technology transmission, the evolution of town and route, scientific and technological exchanges, and the impact of environmental changes on the civilization along the Ancient Silk Road. 

At the same time, they also aim to train compound scientific and technological talents with an international perspective and cross-cultural organization coordination ability, and capable of guiding international high-level scientific and technological cooperation experience and execution. Their main goal is striving for the power of discourse in the research field of the Silk Road civilization, building up the cultural self-confidence of the Silk Road civilization, providing an important scientific basis for supporting the construction of the Green Silk Road, and finally serving the national “Belt and Road” initiative scientifically and technologically.

A brief introduction to ATES 

The ancient Silk Road was one of the most important passages for trans-Eurasia exchange and human migration, which could be traced back to 5000-4000 years before the present. Prof. Fahu Chen and his team have been focusing on understanding the mechanisms for climate and environmental change in Arid Central Asia, which have been widely recognized and awarded the National Achievement Prize in 2007 and 2018. 

In 2013, the Chinese Government proposed the "Belt and Road" Initiatives to foster sustainable development in belt and road regions. In 2018, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China initiated a key project on Climate change and its influence on Silk Road Civilizations. In the same year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and ~40 scientific organizations from more than 30 countries launched the Alliance of International Science Organization in the Belt and Road Region (ANSO) to promote scientific collaborations. Within the framework of ANSO, Prof. Chen proposed to establish the ANSO Association for Trans-Eurasia Exchange and Silk-Road Civilization Development (ATES).

The main goals for ATES are (1) in-depth understanding of climate and environment changes along with the ancient Silk Road, trans-Eurasia exchanges and Silk Road civilization development, (2) to investigate the promotion of the scientific exchanges along the Silk Road to the social development, and (3) to foster collective identification of human community by interdisciplinary studies on climate, hydrology, environment, archaeology, etc. The first ATES international meeting was held in Lanzhou in May 2019.

(Executive Editor: Ye Ke)