What is a Botanic Garden?

BGCI has considered what makes a botanic garden different from a public park or pleasure gardens. In the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation (PDF,2.6MB) the definition of a botanic garden is as follows:

"Botanic gardens are institutions holding documented collections of living plants for the purposes of scientific research, conservation, display and education."

Did you know...

There are botanic gardens and arboreta in 148 countries worldwide and they maintain more than 4 million living plant collections. Use the BGCI Garden Search for detailed information on 2500 gardens around the world

Amongst their collections are representatives of more than 80000 species, almost one third of the known vascular plant species of the world. Click here to search their collections

There are a total of 142 million herbarium specimens in botanic garden herbaria and 6.13 million accessions in their living collections.

Over 500 botanic gardens occur in Western Europe, more than 350 in North America and over 200 in East and Southeast Asia, of which the majority are in China . Most of the southern Asian botanic gardens are to be found in India.

The Role of Botanic Gardens in Plant Conservation

Botanic gardens play a key role in the conservation of the world's plant diversity and the education of people in environmental issues. BGCI facilitates this work through delivering publications, workshops, congresses, support and guidance. Together we are making plants, and thus life, more secure.

Botanic Garden Policies on Access and Benefit Sharing

So far, over 100 countries have drafted, or are in the process of drafting, national legislation that affects the way their biological resources can be acquired, used and supplied to others. Botanic gardens need to show their understanding of the CBD in order to build trust with partners.

Botanic Gardens, Biodiversity and Human Well-being

Discover how botanic gardens are linking biodiversity with improvements to human well-being.

Careers in Conservation and Botanic Gardens

Find Out More

The Weight of A Petal: The Value of Botanical Gardens
By H. Bruce Rinker, this ActionBioscience.org article beautifully describes the importance of botanic gardens to plant conservation and thus, the whole of humanity and the world. Get your inspiration here!

Botanic gardens around the world

Botanic Garden TV - BGTV

BGTV is BGCI's YouTube channel where we showcase the work of botanic gardens, we have playlists of videos about gardens and plants, as well as conservation ideas and inspiration from composting to musical vegetables. Watch, enjoy, and send us more clips!

3rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress

The 3rd Global Botanic Gardens Congress has drawn to a successful conclusion. Attracting nearly 1,000 participants from 67 countries, the proceedings are now online, along with blog updates, pictures and useful links for you to continue benefiting from the event.

Cultivate E-Bulletin

Cultivate bi-monthly e-bulletin brings you opinion, comment, case studies and surveys for and about the world's botanic gardens. Sign up today - click the link.

The Darwin Technical Manual

Everything you could want to know about starting and running a botanic garden is contained in this unique resource. Written in collaboration with 87 people from 22 countries, it is available in French, Spanish and English. New BGCI Members are given the Manual along with lots of other key resources.

Botanic Gardens RSS News Feed

Add BGCI to your RSS feed list and get the latest from botanic gardens on your desktop.

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