Balkan herbaria: do we have to worry about them?

Abstract

The Balkan Peninsula has 57 herbaria listed in Index Herbariorum that have almost 5.5 million herbarium sheets. The aim of this study was to determine the status of these herbaria, in terms of their current technical capacities and manpower, their activities, and their communication with botanical societies via herbarium exchanges and loans. Data were gathered through a survey of 24 questions passed to the herbaria curators or other herbarium staff. Fifty-six percentage of the herbaria responded (32/57). Through the analysis of the data gathered, the current state, needs, potential and future perspectives for these Balkan herbaria were evaluated for the full individual question responses. The Balkan herbaria are mostly owned by universities, institutes and museums (30/32; 94%), and the majority have almost no formal protection of their collections (17/32; 53%). They are not sufficiently financed and functioned with too few staff. They are also not following modern herbarium standards, with problems mainly with insects and moulds (29/32; 91%), and with air conditioning mostly not used (18/27; 67%). Their exchange and borrowing frequencies are very low. Generally, there is little public access to the databases, and only a small fraction of the material has been digitized. The awareness of the problems of these herbaria at higher decision-making levels is low. Therefore, we can conclude that these herbarium collections in the Balkan Peninsula are under serious threat. Societies must be aware of this and must do as much as possible to preserve these collections and to enhance their active maintenance and use.