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Welcome to BGCI's Education Portal

One of BGCI's key work areas is in education - the provision of materials for people in botanic gardens to use in their education programmes of all kinds.

Botanic gardens and related institutions are in a powerful position to influence public thinking. Over 200 million people visit botanic gardens every year, about one in 33 of all people in the world. That is a huge audience, and with consistent, relevant messages, botanic gardens have an incredible opportunity to change behaviour and promote plant biodiversity.

This website is designed to support botanic garden and other environmental educators in their work - and in doing so, help to create a world in which plant diversity is valued, secure and supporting all life.

In this section:

• NEW - resources for communicating about climate change
  

• Education Case Studies
  

• Education Publications
  

• Resources

• Education Congress Proceedings
  

• To keep up to date, sign up to the e-newsletter 'Education e-update'.

• Send us your news - We are always keen to hear from our members and find out about the latest developments in education, to put on the website or include in Cuttings (BGCI's newsletter). So, if you've got a new programme to promote, have produced some new resources, have started a new project, received some funding or had a change of staff, let us know about it!

• A review of education in botanic gardens has been carried out - for the results, see the Global Snapshot on Botanic Garden Education 2006

New in BGCI Education

Did you have your say about the BGCI education resource provision? See what the outcomes are - have a look at the survey summary or a PDF of the full report now on the website to download.

The BGCI education pages are constantly being reviewed and updated. For the most recent changes, have a look at;

• Roots archives, nearly 200 articles from back issues of Roots to download
• Newly available Roots 3:2, Environmental education and play. This issue is packed full of practical ideas and articles on how and why to encourage children to connect with nature.
• Resources section; have a look at the totally revamped resources section, now including resources from Roots, on-line how-to guides and web links
• Education E-update archive, archive of issues of the monthly international email newsletter
• Proceedings from all six BGCI education in botanic gardens congresses
  

New to botanic garden education? Make sure you download the BGCI education guidelines, in the resources section.

Latest News

Community Projects save the cactus in Mexico

20th June 2008

A successful community based cactus conservation project has been set up in Queretaro State in Mexico. The project, involving local school children, was set up in response to the identification of five threatened species of cactus in the semi-arid Bellavista del Rio region of Queretaro.

The travelling exhibition of bananas!

6th June 2008

No End to the Banana is an exhibition travelling the world that explores the diversity of bananas.

New environmentally state of the art visitor centre for Dawyck Botanic Gardens

6th June 2008

A new £1.6m state-of-the art visitor centre has opened its doors at Dawyck Botanic Garden (Scotland), one of four botanic gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

More News