Ex-situ Conservation of Indigenous, Threatened and Ethno-Medicinal Diversity of Forest Species

Purnomo DW, Solihah SM, Sumanto. 2015. Conservation value and environmental services of the plant collections of botanic gardens at the urban area. Pros Sem Nas Masy Biodiv Indon 1: 1851-1855. Botanic gardens (BG) at the urban areas is part of the green open space which can provide benefits for the sustainability of social and ecological functions for urban communities. This study aims to determine the role of plant collections of the botanic gardens for plants conservation and environmental services on oxygen supply and carbon sequestration in the urban areas. Plant collections in BG have a legal status and can not be converted, so as to contribute directly in the oxygen provision and carbon sequestration throughout the year. Conservation value is analyzed using a Conservation Value Index (CVI) based on the rarity of plant collections, while ecosystem services are estimated by values of oxygen production and carbon sequestration of plants collection. The result shows that Bogor BG (conservation value index/CVI = 6.48; production of oxygen/P = 1,754.84 tonO2/year; and carbon sequestration/C = 658.06 tonC/year), followed by KR Purwodadi (CVI = 1.13; P = 1,108.51 ton O2/year; C = 415.69 ton C/year). Bogor BG, which is the oldest botanical gardens in Indonesia, even in Southeast Asia, has the largest collection to be the deciding factor of high conservation value, oxygen production, and carbon sequestration. Baturraden BG (CVI = 1.00), a local botanic garden, has a high conservation value because its collection has a high endemicity level in line with the theme of a collection of plants plateau Java. The value of conservation and environmental services botanical gardens can be enhanced with the exploration efforts of endangered plant species from natural forests and increase the number of collections, especially for the local botanical garden. Baturraden BG (CVI = 1.00), a local botanic garden, is classified in the high conservation value because its collection has a high endemicity level matching with the collection theme of the Java mountain forest. The value of conservation and environmental services of botanic gardens can be enhanced by the exploration efforts of threatened plant species from natural forests and increase the number of collections, especially for local botanic gardens.

The biodiversity benefits of botanic gardens

The accession data quality and record keeping at 21 botanic gardens, 35 gardens with National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG) collections, and eight other significant gardens in the UK was surveyed in January 2001, with special reference to Hebe.Nearly half of all the gardens in the survey had no written policies or procedures on accessions. This correlated significantly (p<0.05) with poorer quality accession data. Only 14% of botanicgardens and 17% of NCCPG gardens recorded all the minimum accession data fields recommended by the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI). Only a third of all types of garden stored all their data on computer; a third of the botanic gardens updated their data less frequently than every two years, and the information transferred from the accession records to labels was sometimes scant. There was a significant negative correlation between the average number of accessions per member of staff, and accession data quality — more than 250accessions per member of staff often corresponding to poor data quality.We challenge the view that botanic gardens should only concentrate on plants from the local indigenous flora (Action Plan for Botanic Gardens in the European Union, BGCI 2000) becauseit restricts the educational role and research potential of the garden and limits the world-wide collections of endangered species being kept safe from indigenous hazards. However, with a need to limit the plants in gardens to a manageable number with good records, criteria will be needed to select which species to represent in collections. A list of criteria, developed from areview of the Hebe collection in the University of Bristol Botanic Garden, is suggested for all plants in botanic and similar gardens.

Botanic gardens in the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent countries, along with institutions such as museums, universities and research centres, have long played a major role in the exploration, identification and conservation of this region’s flora and vegetation. The primary aim of botanic gardens in the past was to study the plant world from the horticultural point of view and to cultivate plants of economic or medicinal importance. However, at present, particularly in arid regions such as the Arabian Peninsula, the activities of botanic gardens are focused primarily on (i) the study and exploration of the region’s rapidly vanishing flora, thereby safeguarding gene pools of wild species, and (ii) the assessment and preservation of species that may be of importance to humans and animals for food, medicines, fibre and amenity. Recently established botanic gardens in the region, including the proposed King Abdullah International Gardens in Riyadh and Oman Botanic Garden near Muscat, will enhance existing conservation activities concerning the ailing and rapidly vanishing floristic components of the Arabian Peninsula.

This study compares the performance of EfficientNetB7 and MobileNetV2 in classifying herbal plant species using Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). The primary objective was to automatically identify herbal plant species with high accuracy. Based on the evaluation results, both EfficientNetB7 and MobileNetV2 achieved approximately 98% accuracy in recognizing herbal plant species. While both models demonstrated excellent performance in precision, recall, and F1-score for most plant species, EfficientNetB7 showed a slight edge in some evaluation metrics. These findings provide valuable insights into the potential implementation of CNN architectures in automatic plant recognition applications, particularly for developing widely applicable web-based systems for herbal plant identification.

The world’s botanical gardens house some 80,000–100,000 species, and ca. 15,000 species hereof are threatened in the wild. However, representation of natural biodiversity is imbalanced. There is strong bias towards certain plant families and genera, and towards certain functional groups. Apart from this, bias towards species from temperate regions as a result of the imbalance in geographic distribution of botanical gardens is obvious. Tropical regions and the southern hemisphere are highly underrepresented. Most species cultivated in botanical gardens are on an average represented by only two or three specimens, and the genetic diversity within wild species is not reflected. Further limitations include poor documentation and poor maintenance. These limitations reduce the value of the collections as plant genetic resources. However, botanical gardens are the standard institutions for ex situ conservation and propagation of wild plants and should be the main authorities for wild plants. With their huge collections on display botanical gardens are the most effective multipliers for increasing public awareness of the value of biodiversity and conservation needs. There is growing awareness of the ecological, economic and cultural significance of wild plant species and their potential value as genetic resources. Botanical gardens should establish seed gene banks for wild plants for promoting integrated conservation efforts and for protection and conservation of our natural plant genetic resources. They should establish database networks and should provide information services for science, politics and the general public. Botanical gardens play a significant role in promoting public awareness of the value of biodiversity. They have a remarkable potential to contribute to the conservation of plant genetic resources. PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) defines genetic resources as “genetic material of actual or potential value” (CBD 1992, article 2), in which “genetic material” means any material of plant, animal, microbial or other origin containing functional units of heredity. Plant genetic resources (PGR) “represent plants or parts of plants which are capable of generative or vegetative propagation with actual or potential value” (FAO Commission on PGR). Plant genetic resources may be classified into eight groups according to the respective conditions for use and conservation (Keller et al., 2002): agricultural crops (food, fodder, raw material); pasture plants (meadows and pastures for fodder production); vegetables; fruit crops (fruit trees and shrubs); special crops (medicinal plants, spices, aromatic and dye-plants); ornamentals (flowers, shrubs, ornamental woody plants); forest plants; wild plants. About 30,000 plant species are considered edible. Of these, 7,000 have been cultivated or collected by humans (FAO, 1998). About 120 food crops are of importance on a national scale. Only 30 crop species make up 90 % of the worlds calorie intake. In some countries, especially Africa and South America, wild species contribute a significant source of food in addition to cultivated species. The markets for plant genetic resources products is immense and according to Ten Kate and Laird (1999) annually somewhere between 500 and 800 billion US $.

Cemeteries are key urban green spaces with multifaceted societal and ecological importance. Their biodiversity is shaped by unique environmental and cultural factors. They can potentially protect rare and endangered species, yet their conservation value compared with other urban green spaces remains largely unexplored. We sought to fill this gap by systematically reviewing literature to investigate the conservation value of cemeteries relative to other urban green spaces (botanical gardens, institutional premises, natural remnants, and parks) by comparing species richness and proportions of native and unique species. We analyzed data from 70 papers covering 50 cities in 27 countries with linear and binomial mixed‐effects models at both site and city level. Cemetery conservation value was similar to urban parks, except for the proportion of unique species, for which parks had significantly higher proportions (21.9% vs. 14.2%, p < 0.001). Cemeteries hosted slightly higher proportions of native species at the city level than botanical gardens (99.7% vs. 99.6%, p < 0.001) and institutional green spaces (96.3% vs. 94.1%, p = 0.034) and proportions comparable to parks and natural remnants (p > 0.05). They also had similar or higher values than institutional premises in species richness and unique species proportions (p > 0.05) and a higher site‐level proportion of native species (p < 0.001). In contrast, species richness (slopes = −0.11 and −0.25, respectively) and unique species proportions (4.4% and 6.9%, respectively, p < 0.001 for both) were lower in cemeteries than in remnants of natural areas and in botanical gardens. The conservation value of cemeteries and parks was similar for animals, but parks had a higher value for plants. Overall, cemeteries were generally at least as valuable as some other green spaces for urban biodiversity and mostly native biota. Their religious and cultural significance suggests they will remain intact in the long term; thus, it is essential to prioritize and further promote their biodiversity in conservation and sustainable urban design plans.

Abstract. Hidayat S, Zuhud EAM, Widyatmoko D, Bahruni. 2021. Assessing the conservation value of medicinal plant collections in Bogor Botanic Gardens, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 22: 696-706. Botanic gardens contain plant collections for the purpose primarily for ex-situ conservation, yet the public rarely appreciates these collections. As such, assessing the conservation value of botanic gardens collections is very important as an effort to increase public awareness of the importance of botanic gardens and their plant collections. This research aimed to assess the conservation value of plant collection in Bogor Botanic Gardens (BBG), Indonesia using quantitative and qualitative methods. We focused our assessment on medicinal plant collections with the habitus of tree. Conservation value of a plant collection was approached by preservation value and utilization value both quantitatively using monetary units and qualitatively using non-monetary index. Based on these two approaches, quantitatively most (91%) of the medicinal plant collections in BBG assessed in this study have a value of more than one million rupiahs, even 21% have a value of more than 100 million rupiahs, implying the high monetary value of medicinal plant collection in Bogor Botanic Gardens. Meanwhile, qualitatively, the conservation value score of a species will be strongly influenced by the existence of protection laws issued by the government and the cultural level of plants' use by the community. Our framework of assessing the conservation value of plant collections, especially those with medicinal purposes, can be replicated in other botanic gardens.

Collections in global botanical gardens reveal charismatic species bias in conservation.

Gardens are mapped out areas where plants like flowers, trees, spices, herbs, fruits, or vegetables are grown and/or cultivated for the impetus of conservation, aesthetics, or scientific studies. The specific role of botanical gardens all over the world is repositories of diverse collections of functional and utilitarian plants in their gardens and seed banks. Botanical gardens help increase public awareness of threats to plant diversity and promote education on biological conservation and preventing biodiversity loss while achieving sustainability and preventing extinction of germane plant life. Over-exploitation of forest resources has affected plant diversity and various species have been forced to go into extermination. Thus, it is imperative to protect and preserve the vegetative species which supports life and the functioning of our ecosystems. Botanical gardens’ strength and experience in conservation stem from their in-depth perception and understanding of the tutelage, management, and biology of a wide range of plant species. Ex situ and in situ conservation projects aiming at safeguarding endangered species, rebuilding imperilled populations, and maintaining living plant and seed collections of endangered species are some of the ways of improving the existence of botanical gardens. Improving the existence and impact of botanical gardens is tantamount to sustenance of vegetative species all over the world. The advent of greenhouse system in plant production has stimulated the production of plants, thereby avoiding extinction which may occur in the wild. With these immeasurable benefits, the production is affected by cost because plants need to be given full attention in terms of water and nutrient supply for optimal production. The greenhouse system of gardening is a fast-growing system which involves the production in a controlled environment. This measure has generated an increase in production per unit area based on the aim of the farmer and availability all year-round. This book chapter therefore describes the concept of botanical gardens, its economic importance, challenges, and potential strategies to be employed for sustainability.KeywordsBotanical gardenVegetative species conservationControlled systemGreenhouse technologyPlant biodiversity

In Nigeria, deliberate efforts have been made to conserve plants through the establishment of protected areas, including parks, forests, and botanical gardens. Most tertiary institutions have also established botanical gardens to promote the conservation of plant biodiversity. This study focused on the University of Benin Botanical Garden, analyzing its ecological and economic value after ten years of development. Both quantitative and qualitative assessments of plant species were conducted, including species diversity indices, tree morphometrics, and the influence of tree shade on herbaceous growth, with comparisons drawn between shaded and open areas. A total of 34 tree species across 14 grids were identified and classified into distinct habits and life cycles. Notably, Gliricidia sepium (Fabaceae) was the most dominant tree species, while Asystasia gangetica (Acanthaceae) was the most prevalent herb, particularly under shade. Ecological indices such as Shannon diversity, Simpson index, and Fisher’s alpha were calculated, revealing higher species evenness in shaded grids, with Grid 14 exhibiting the highest evenness index (0.8563). Tree morphometrics showed that Bombax buonopozense recorded the highest trunk volume (149.66 m³). Furthermore, plant species were categorized based on their economic importance, including medicinal, food, cultural, oil-producing, and ornamental values. Elaeis guineensis and Psidium guajava exhibited multipurpose uses across multiple value domains. The findings highlight that botanical gardens serve as vital repositories for conserving plant diversity and cultural heritage, especially in regions threatened by urbanization and environmental degradation. This Botanical Garden demonstrates significant ecological richness and economic relevance, supporting its role as a model for conservation in developing countries.

Botanic gardens came into existence in the late 1500s to document, study, and preserve plants originating from all over the world. The scientific field of botany was a direct outcome of these developments. From the 1600s onward, botanic gardens also paid key roles in acclimatizing plants across distinct ecosystems and respective climate zones. This often entailed the appropriation of Indigenous systems of plant expertise that were then used without recognition within the parameters of scientific botanical expertise. As such, botanic gardens operated as contact zones of unequal power dynamics between European and Indigenous knowledge systems. Botanic gardens were intimately embroiled with the global expansion of European colonialism and processes of empire building. They helped facilitate the establishment of cash-crop systems around the world, which effectively amounted to the extractive systems of plant wealth accumulation that characterize the modern European colonial enterprise. In the mid-20th century, botanic gardens began to take on leading roles in the conservation of plant biodiversity while also attending to issues of social equity and sustainable development. Relationships between lay expertise and scientific knowledge acquired renewed significance in this context, as did discussions of the knowledge politics that these interactions entailed. As a consequence of these transformations, former colonial exchanges within the botanical garden world between Indigenous knowledge practices and their appropriation by science came under scrutiny in the final decades of the 20th century. Efforts to decolonize botanic gardens and their knowledge practices emerged in the second decade of the 20th century.

Europe has the greatest concentration of botanic gardens in the world, they cultivate extensive collections of plants that include samples of European threatened plant species. This study looks at the effectiveness of these collections in supporting species conservation. A three part study is presented: (1) the results of a survey and assessment of threatened plants in botanic gardens, as defined by the Bern Convention; (2) case studies illustrating current issues in the ex situ management of European threatened plant species; and (3) presentation of policy recommendations on further improving botanic garden contributions to European plant conservation. The survey indicated that of 119 European botanic gardens in 29 European countries, 105 are cultivating 308 of the 573 threatened plant species listed by the Bern Convention. The survey identified 25 botanic gardens in 14 countries undertaking 51 conservation projects focused on 27 Bern listed species. In particular this survey has established that the majority of taxa are held in a small number of collections, dominated by non-wild origin accessions, and are not adequately documented. The majority of specimens in botanic gardens are cultivated out of the range country and not contributing to a specific conservation project. We review the genetic representation and documentation of origin in collections. Existing plant collections contain representatives of populations, now lost in the wild and maintain samples of at least nine European plant taxa identified as 'Extinct in the Wild'. However, inadequate standards of record keeping has compromised the conservation value of many collections. We highlight the dangers of hybridisation and disease in ex situ collections. The results suggest that botanic garden collections are skewed towards horticulturally robust and ornamental species and do not fully reflect priorities as defined by the Bern Convention. Recognising the limitations of traditional botanic garden collections we propose that botanic gardens more effectively utilise their two core competencies, namely scientific horticulture and public display and interpretation. The unique horticultural skills resident in European botanic gardens could be more effectively utilised through the application of horticulture to the management of wild populations.

Living botanic garden plant collections are a fundamental and underutilized worldwide resource for plant conservation. A common goal in managing a botanical living collection is to maintain the greatest biodiversity at the greatest economic and logistic efficiency. However to date there is no unified strategy for managing living plants within and among botanic gardens. We propose a strategy that combines three indicators of the management priority of a collection: information on species imperilment, genetic representation, and the operational costs associated to maintaining genetic representation. In combination or alone, these indicators can be used to assay effectiveness and efficiency of living collections, and to assign a numeric conservation value to an accession. We illustrate this approach using endangered palms that have been studied to varying degrees. Management decisions can be readily extended to other species based on our indicators. Thus, the conservation value of a species can be shared through existing databases with other botanic gardens and provide a list of recommendations toward a combined man- agement strategy for living collections. Our approach is easily implemented and well suited for decision-making by gardens and organizations interested in plant conservation. Resumen Las colecciones vivas en jardines botanicos son una parte fundamental y poco utilizada en la conservacion de plantas a nivel mundial. Un objetivo comun en el manejo de las colecciones botanicas vivas es mantener la mayor biodiversidad al menor costo economico y logistico. Sin embargo hasta ahora no existe una estrategia

The discipline of horticulture, growing and propagating plants under artificial conditions, has a centuries-long tradition and has developed into a vital industry of breeding, propagating and trading ornamental and wild plants around the globe. Botanic gardens have always been at the centre of horticultural training and have provided excellence and advancements in the field. In recent decades, botanic gardens have also become an active part of ex situ conservation activities by storing seeds of endangered wild plants, growing living collections for conservation purposes, or propagating plants for direct reintroduction measures. While this shift in focus has been necessary and very important, ex situ collections of wild plants have been criticised for beinggenetically impoverished, potentially hybridised with congeners, or adapted to the artificial garden conditions and potentially having lost specific adaptations to their original wild habitat. In this review, we provide an overview of these potential threats to wild plants in ex situ living collections and outline examples of how ex situ cultivation can affect genetic diversity, trait expression and adaptive responses of the plants. We evaluate what these changes could mean for the conservation value of the collections, and discuss how they could be avoided by refining horticultural practices.