Abstract
Botanic gardens and arboreta offer the opportunity to conserve and manage a wide range of plant diversity ex situ, and in situ in the broader landscape. The rationale that botanic gardens have a major role to play in preventing plant species extinctions is based on the assumptions that (1) there is no technical reason why any plant species should become extinct, and (2) that, as a professional community, botanic gardens possess a unique set of skills that encompass finding, identifying, collecting, conserving and growing plant diversity across the entire taxonomic spectrum. Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) is the pivotal centre of a global network of c. 2,600 botanic gardens and arboreta, which includes living collections representing at least one-third of known plant diversity; world class seed banks, glasshouses and tissue culture infrastructures; and technical knowledge networks covering all aspects of plant conservation. Following the example of the crop conservation community, BGCI is promoting the concept of a cost-effective, rational,botanic garden-centred Global System for the conservation and management of plant diversity.This system will aim to collect, conserve, characterise and cultivate samples from all of the world’s rare and threatened plants as an insurance policy against their extinction in the wild and as a source of plant material for human innovation, adaptation and resilience.
Highlights
Plants are essential for human and other animal life on Earth in that they capture energy from the sun and convert it into food in the form of their seeds, leaves and roots
The threat of extinction is largely due to habitat degradation, invasive alien species and overexploitation, and is likely to be exacerbated by climate change
Given the urgent need to achieve food security in the face of a changing climate and burgeoning human population, the crop research community has developed the concept of a cost-effective, rational Global System for the conservation and sustainable use of plant genetic resources in food and agriculture (FAO, 2011)
Summary
Botanic gardens and arboreta offer the opportunity to conserve and manage a wide range of plant diversity ex situ, and in situ in the broader landscape. 2,600 botanic gardens and arboreta, which includes living collections representing at least one-third of known plant diversity; world class seed banks, glasshouses and tissue culture infrastructures; and technical knowledge networks covering all aspects of plant conservation. Following the example of the crop conservation community, BGCI is promoting the concept of a cost-effective, rational, botanic garden-centred Global System for the conservation and management of plant diversity. This system will aim to collect, conserve, characterise and cultivate samples from all of the world’s rare and threatened plants as an insurance policy against their extinction in the wild and as a source of plant material for human innovation, adaptation and resilience
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