Ex situ conservation of wild species: services provided by botanic gardens.

Abstract

Abstract This chapter discusses a range of conservation services routinely provided by botanical gardens, and gives examples from the Royal Botanic Garden (RBG) Kew's Millennium Seed Bank Project (MSBP) of conservation services that RBG Kew and partner botanical gardens have been able to provide to applied conservation projects worldwide. The MSBP is a 10-year international programme (2000-10) with two main aims: (1) collect and conserve seeds from 24 200 species, principally from the drylands, by 2010; and (2) develop bilateral research, training and capacity-building relationships worldwide to support and advance the seed conservation effort. Four areas of conservation action are described: (i) provision of botanical diversity information; (ii) seed conservation services; (iii) conservation genetics research; and (iv) horticultural services.