Botanic Gardens Conservation International The world’s largest plant conservation network

Encouraging botanic gardens to do more plant conservation: tools and approaches

Dr Paul Smith, Secretary General,

Botanic Gardens Conservation International

Diminishing plant diversity

© Joseph S. Venus

20% of plant species are threatened with extinction

Why plant diversity is important

Plant-based solutions are required to address all of the major environmental challenges:

• Food security

• Water scarcity

• Energy

• Human health

• Biodiversity conservation

• Climate change

Why plant diversity is important

Plant diversity enables human innovation, adaptation and resilience

The role of botanic gardens

There is no technological reason why any plant species should become extinct

The role of botanic gardens

Conservation, collections, research and education feature in most botanic garden mission statements and activities 80% of botanic gardens have Strategic Plans 65% of gardens have institutional measures of performance/success Botanic gardens are booming. The number of gardens has quadrupled over the last 30 years

The role of botanic gardens

The role of botanic gardens

Top 10 institutional measures in botanic gardens (n = 119)

The role of botanic gardens

Conservation: Specific conservation activities and impacts that a garden specialises in are rarely measured at the institutional level Research: Publications are frequently used as a surrogate for all research outputs Collections: 40% of gardens don’t measure the use of their collections by third parties Education: 49% of gardens don’t measure change of behaviour or attitudes amongst their visitors Specialist horticulture: 60% of gardens don’t measure specific horticultural skills or specialisms.

A rational, cost-effective Global System

• The Global Strategy for Plant

Conservation

• A review process (GPPC/BIP)

• A network of international institutions

and ex situ collections (BGCI)

• A global portal of accession-level data

(PlantSearch)

• A universal accessions information

management system

• Advanced bioinformatics tools that

allow users to mine characterisation

data

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

3000 botanic gardens in the world

A rational, cost-effective Global System: infrastructures

PlantBank, NSW, Australia GBOWS, Kunming, China

Millennium Seed Bank, U.K. Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

A rational, cost-effective Global System: technical expertise

A rational, cost-effective Global System: collections

• PlantSearch: 1,342,972 collection

records, representing 530,456 taxa,

at 1,147 contributing institutions

• Estimated minimum proportion of

total plant diversity in botanic

gardens & arboreta:

• 93% of vascular plant families

• 57% of vascular plant genera

• 30% of vascular plant species

• 41% of threatened species are held

in global ex situ collections

Mounce, Smith & Brockington (2017). Ex situ conservation of plant diversity in the world’s botanic gardens. Nature Plants (in press)

What we conserve well

62.8% of all flowering plants genera and 96.6% of conifer genera are conserved in botanic gardens

What we conserve well

60% of temperate species are conserved in botanic gardens

What we don’t conserve well

Only 25% of tropical species are conserved in botanic gardens

What we don’t conserve well

<5% of non-vascular genera

(mosses, liverworts etc.)are

conserved in botanic gardens

Photo: Australian National Botanic Garden

What we don’t conserve well

Species that are technically

difficult to grow

Pilostyles thurberi (photo: D.L. Nickrent)

What we don’t conserve well

Lack of capacity. 82% of botanic

gardens are located in the

northern hemisphere

Hydrostachys polymorpha (photo: D. Gwynne-Evans)

Threatened species

• At least 41% of known threatened species are conserved in botanic garden living collections and seed banks

• Threatened species are often harder to find and to grow

• However, only 10% of botanic garden collections capacity is dedicated to threatened plant species

Threatened species

Eligmocarpus cynometroides (Madagascar). 12 trees remain. Pollinator unknown

Threatened species

Leucadendron remotum (South Africa). Two populations. Threatened by seed predation

Threatened species

Fernandoa abbreviata (Malawi). No seed set in 40 years. Pollinator unknown

Co-ordinate efforts: red listing

RBG Kew

• ThreatSearch is the most comprehensive

database of threat assessments for plants

https://www.bgci.org/threat_search.php

• Geo-referenced global tree list complete

and launched on BGCI website as

GlobalTreeSearch

https://www.bgci.org/global_tree_search.p

hp

• Global Tree Assessment, co-ordinated by

BGCI and the IUCN Global Tree Specialist

Group, to be completed by 2020

Newton et al. (2015). Towards a Global Tree Assessment. Oryx doi:10.1017/S0030605315000137

Co-ordinate efforts: seed conservation

https://www.bgci.org/plant-conservation/seedconservation/

RBG Kew

180 participating botanic gardens

with seed banks

Co-ordinate efforts: tree conservation

• Zero tree species

extinctions

• All critically endangered

tree species conserved in

situ and/or backed up in

botanic gardens, arboreta

or seed banks

• 72 species protected in

2016

http://globaltrees.org/

Integrated tree conservation

Malawi’s national tree, the

Mulanje cedar (Widdringtonia

whytei).

Plots set up in 8 sites across

Malawi to test optimal growing

conditions.

10 community nurseries

established around Mulanje

Revenue generation selling

seedlings.

Co-ordinate efforts: ecological restoration

http://www.erabg.org/index/

Erica verticillata, extinct in the wild for 100 years. Successfully reintroduced in South Africa

30 participating botanic gardens, managing 158 projects

Co-ordinate efforts: partnerships

We need botanic gardens to:

• Take a lead in establishing consortia to

systematically conserve and manage

exceptional species in their living collections:

Rhododendron, Magnolia, Fraxinus, Camellia,

Acer, Nepenthes, orchids, dipterocarps, alpines

etc.

• Duplicate their important conservation

collections with other gardens

• Fill the gaps in living collections, prioritising wild

origin rare and threatened species.

Knowledge hub: training

In 2016 BGCI trained >300

people from 126 institutions

and 30 countries in:

• seed conservation

• nursery techniques

• conservation horticulture

• forest restoration

• survey and inventory

• red listing

• public engagement

• plant health/biosecurity

Accreditation

BGCI funds projects and training

all around the world, equivalent to

ten times what it receives in

subscriptions from its members.

In 2016 BGCI provided funding

and/or training to >160 botanical

institutions on 6 continents

Mobilising funding and resources

On June 25th this year, BGCI’s

International Advisory Council met in

Geneva.

This global leadership forum comprises

the Directors of 25 gardens from the

USA, China, UK, Switzerland, Georgia,

France, Russia, Singapore, Australia,

Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and South

Africa.

For the first time we have an effective,

representative forum driving policy for

our professional community.

Mobilising funding and resources

Accepting the challenge

Accepting the challenge

Accepting the challenge

Accepting the challenge

Who else are we expecting to

do the heavy lifting?

Our Mission is to mobilise botanic gardens and engage partners in securing plant diversity for the well-being of people and the planet

Connecting People • Sharing Knowledge • Saving Plants

Descanso House, 199 Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3BW, UK www.bgci.org

@bgci