Xiaobao Deng delivering his remarks after receiving the 2026 ATBC Parabiologist Award during the Closing Ceremony of the ATBC Annual Meeting in Xishuangbanna, China.
The ATBC Parabiologist Award was launched at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Oaxaca, Mexico, to recognize the essential contributions of local and Indigenous parabiologists to tropical research and conservation. The inaugural award was presented to Santiago Sinaca Colín of Los Tuxtlas, Mexico.
One year later, as the ATBC community gathered in Xishuangbanna, China, the award recognized another extraordinary life in the field. Xiaobao Deng, nominated by the ATBC 2026 Local Organizing Committee, received the 2026 ATBC Parabiologist Award in recognition of his remarkable contributions to tropical rainforest research and biodiversity conservation.
A Yao parabiologist born in Mengla County, Xishuangbanna, Mr. Deng has spent 45 years working in the tropical forests of southwest China. His career reflects a kind of expertise that develops through decades of observing, working in, and caring for the same landscapes. Over the years, that knowledge has supported researchers from China and around the world and helped make long-term ecological research in Xishuangbanna possible.
His contributions are extraordinary in scale. Mr. Deng has helped establish more than 50 long- and short-term research plots and has co-authored more than 30 scientific papers. He played an important role in building the 20-hectare Bubeng ForestGEO plot, China’s largest tropical rainforest biodiversity dynamic monitoring plot, along with its field workstation. He also oversaw the construction of the first forest canopy crane observation system in the tropical and subtropical regions of southwest China, opening new possibilities for studying tropical forest canopies.
His work has extended well beyond Xishuangbanna. Over the past decade, he deployed more than 4,000 infrared camera sites across Yunnan and northern Laos, producing more than 35 TB of wildlife survey data and building an important foundation for long-term and cross-border biodiversity research.
But Mr. Deng’s contribution cannot be measured only in plots, publications, or data. Throughout his career, he has connected deep local ecological knowledge with scientific research, working alongside generations of researchers and helping ensure continuity in projects that often span many years. His story reflects the broader role of parabiologists as collaborators and knowledge holders who make tropical field science possible.
Among the honors he has received are the Yunnan Provincial Science and Technology First Prize and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Science and Technology Progress First Prize, recognizing his contributions to tropical ecological research.
Recognizing Xiaobao Deng during the ATBC Annual Meeting in Xishuangbanna made this year’s award especially meaningful. It celebrated not only an extraordinary individual career, but also the local knowledge, field experience, collaboration, and long-term commitment that underpin so much of tropical biology and conservation.
ATBC congratulates Xiaobao Deng and thanks him for 45 years of dedication to tropical rainforest research and conservation.
Xiaobao Deng during fieldwork. Courtesy of Xiaobao Deng.
