Jianchu Xu is a professor at Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is an internationally respected leading ethno-ecologist who works in coupled human environmental systems. His research includes investigation of early warning signals of global change, transboundary water governance, landscape restoration, ecosystem services and their resilience, agriculture, and integrative conservation.

Xu holds a PhD in Soil Science from China Agricultural University and has published over 100 papers in high-impact journals including Nature, Science, PNAS, Conservation Biology, Fungal Diversity, and Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.