School of Ecology and Environmental Science (SEES) at Yunnan University was established based on Yunnan University’s strategy of building world renowned top regional university and establishing top ecology discipline of Chinese higher education. It mainly originates from School of Life Sciences.

The Ecology Discipline in Yunnan University is heir to a long tradition established nearly a century ago in 1937. Since the 1950s, scholars from three main plant ecology schools came to Yunnan Province and conducted research at Yunnan University. They had made great contribution to the development of Ecology in China. Hundreds of professors and scientists were trained as biologists and ecologists. The first ecological master program and doctoral program at Yunnan University started in 1956 and 1989, respectively. The post-doctoral scientific research station was established in 2013.

After seven decades of development, ecology of YNU has a great academic influence at home and abroad. In the 1990s, ecology, as provincial key disciplines and national 211 Project key disciplines, got a continuous development and was listed into national key disciplines at the 10th and 11th Five-Year Plan, becoming the only national key disciplines in ecology in the southwestern China. In 2012, the Ecology Discipline was ranked the second place at the National Discipline Ranking.
SEES has three undergraduate programs, namely Ecology, Environmental Science and Environmental Engineering. The undergraduate programs of both Ecology and Environmental Science are the national featured programs and key programs in Yunnan Province. SEES has built a comprehensive system to train professionals from bachelors, masters, doctors to postdoctoral.

Among 52 staff, there are 25 professors and associate professors, 4 full-time advisors of doctorate, 19 master’s advisors and 5 part-time master’s advisors. SEES chairs a series of national research projects, for example, the National Water Pollution Control and Treatment Science and Technology Major Project and key programs of National Natural Science Foundation of China with research funds more than ￥ 20 million. SEES also boasted with State Key Labs and Provincial Key Labs including Yunnan Provincial University Key Laboratory for Ecological Environments and Resource, Yunnan Provincial Research Base on Ecological Construction and Sustainable Development, and State Key Laboratory of Bioresource Conservation and Utilization. SEES received the first China’s UNESCO-Costeau Ecotechnie Chair granted by the United Nation.