| Dear Cultivator, A New Initiative for Ecological Restoration Ten Botanic Gardens, meeting in New York last month, have agreed a declaration for ecological restoration. The 'New York Declaration' recognises the scale of the challenge: 'Forty percent of the world’s forests have been completely destroyed and much of what is left is fragmented'. Botanic gardens from the UK, USA, Brazil, Kenya, Australia, Mexico and South Africa pledged to ‘develop a global alliance of botanic gardens for ecological restoration with ambitious long term goals’. The declaration comes hard on the heels of a new BGCI report ‘Botanic Gardens, Endangered Trees and Reforestation in Africa’ (details below). The report shows the work of botanic gardens in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya and Uganda. The New York Declaration also anticipates possible opportunities under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) framework but as we note in our report: ‘The REDD debate is political and complex and botanic gardens may wish to consider the extent to which they get involved either in practical projects or in monitoring and capacity building’. Read more about the New York Declaration Andrew Wood, Cultivate Editor. cultivate@bgci.org STOP PRESS ! BGCI signs agreement with the Secretariat of the CBD (Convention on Biological Diversity) to support continued implementation of the GSPC (Global Strategy for Plant Conservation). More details to follow.
New BGCI publications All of the new reports and documents are available without charge from the BGCI website. A REDD+ Manual for Botanic Gardens This publication reviews the United Nation’s Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation programme, and considers how botanic gardens might be able to use their skills and expertise to address identified capacity gaps. Opportunities for botanic gardens include assisting in biodiversity inventorying and in planning, monitoring and evaluation of projects. Pages: 19. More information Global Survey of Ex situ Zelkova Collections Our survey identified that all of the Zelkova taxa are currently held in living collections by botanic gardens and arboreta. Pages 10. More information Conserving North America’s Threatened Plants Only 39 percent of the nearly 10,000 North American plant species threatened with extinction are protected by being maintained in collections, according to the first comprehensive listing of the threatened plant species in Canada, Mexico and the United States. Pages: 48. More information Botanic Gardens, Endangered Trees and Reforestation in Africa This report includes information on threatened trees cultivated by botanic gardens in DRC, Kenya and Uganda. This report was funded by the Rufford Foundation. Pages: 41. More information
BGCI Ecological Restoration Project Punjab Province, Pakistan BGCI is a partner in a programme for habitat recovery of scrub thorn vegetation in the Soan Valley, Punjab Province, Pakistan. A joint project of GC University Lahore, Pakistan, and BGCI. More information
Botanic Garden Survey Research to improve the management of botanic gardens; you can help Botanic gardens are being asked to assist with research into effective management structures for gardens. Please consider completing a short online survey for your botanic garden to assist Alasdair Macnab with his study. Responses will be treated in confidence. Thank-you. More information
Botanic Garden Education Winner of Fairchild Challenge/BGCI Global Option The winner of the 2010/2011 Fairchild Challenge/BGCI Global Option is Deanna Hobson from Twin Valley High School, USA with their 'Living as One' poster design. More information INQUIRE BGCI is a partner in INQUIRE, a new European Union project which aims to re-invigorate inquiry-based science education outside the classroom. More information COMING SOON: Proceedings of BGCI's 7th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens The proceedings of the congress held in Durban, South Africa in 2009 will shortly be available online from BGCI. More information
New Botanical Publications Fifth European Botanic Gardens Congress (EuroGard V) More information First International Symposium of Shanghai Censham Botanical Gardens, China More information  COMING SOON: The Red Data Book of the Flowering Plants of the Cameroon by Jean Michel Onana and Martin Creek. Pages: 578. Published by Kew Publishing .
This is tropical Africa's first Red Data book for plants. Cameroon contains tropical Africa's most species-diverse hotspots for plants; many are rare and threatened with extinction. In this book, 815 species are documented as being threatened using IUCN global assessments, most being assessed for the first time. Since many species occur beyond Cameroon, the new assessments are also relevant to Nigeria and Gabon, and as far west as Guinea and east to Congo and Rwanda-Burundi.
ISBN 978-1-84246-429-8 | 
