Mr. Liang holds a Graduate Diploma in Land Use Planning from School of Urban, Regional Planning, University of the Philippines (1993), a Master of Science in Geography from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (1987) and a Bachelor of Science in Geography from Peking University (1984). He is Member of Editorial Board, Journal of Mountain Science.

Before joining UNU, He was a Honorary Research Fellow at Department of Land Economy, University of Aberdeen from 1995–1996 and a Land Use Planning Officer, at Yunnan Provincial Department of Land Resources, China from 1987–1998.

A selection of his works includes Shifting Agriculture in Asia: Implications for Environmental Conservation and Sustainable Livelihood (co-eds with Saxena, K.G.and Rerkasem, K. 2007); and “Building on traditional shifting cultivation for rotational agroforestry: Experiences from Yunnan, China” (co-authored with L. Shenb, W. Yang, X. Yang, Y. Zhang, Forest Ecology and Management Vol. 257, Issue 10, 2009).