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European Botanic Gardens meet in Spain
5th December 2012


Representatives from botanic garden networks across Europe met in Gijón, Spain from 1-2 December to share experiences and discuss important issues related to plant conservation and collection management.

Participants recognized the importance of sharing information on botanic gardens and their plant collections and committed to regularly update information in BGCI’s GardenSearch and PlantSearch databases.  The PlantSearch database provides a tool to monitor progress towards Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) - (At least 75% of the threatened plant species in ex situ collections, preferably in the country of origin, and at least 20% is available for recovery and restoration programmes). A review of progress will be required before 2015, when the Convention on Biological Diversity will conduct a mid-term review of the GSPC.

The meeting also considered the proposed EU regulation on the Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing.  Botanic gardens will be key stakeholders in the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol when it comes into force and it is therefore essential that they play an active role in the development of the European response to the Protocol.  The International Plant Exchange Network (IPEN) was established as a CBD-compliant mechanism to facilitate non-commercial exchange of plant material between botanic gardens. However, it is now important that IPEN is reviewed in the context of the Nagoya Protocol. The Consortium’s IPEN Task Force has been tasked with following up on these issues with the European Commission. 

Another issue addressed by the Consortium was the updating of the European Botanic Gardens Action Plan. This was developed in 2000 and it was agreed that it is now time to update this in line with new developments and international agreements that affect the work of botanic gardens. 

Further information about the European Botanic Gardens Consortium can be found here.


Participants at the meeting were:

  • Austria: Michael Kiehn (University of Vienna Botanic Garden)
  • Belgium: Gert Ausloos (National Botanic Garden of Belgium, Meise)
  • Croatia: Biserka Juretic (University of Zagreb Botanic Garden)
  • Cyprus: Loukia Vassiliou (Agricultural Research Institute, Nicosia)
  • Czech Republic: Petr Hanzelka (Prague Botanic Garden)
  • Estonia: Heiki Tamm (University of Tartu Botanic Garden)
  • Finland: Marko Hyvärinen (Finnish Museum of Natural History Botanic Garden, Helsinki)
  • France, Maïté Delmas (National Museum of Natural History, París)
  • Germany: Nils Köster (Berlin Botanic Garden)
  • Greece: Eleni Maloupa (Balkan Botanic Garden)
  • Hungary: Antal Radvánszky (Hungarian Association of Botanic Gardens)
  • Italy: Costantino Bonomi (Museum of Science, Trento)
  • Lithuania: Asta Klimiene (Botanic Garden of Siauliai University)
  • Luxembourg: Thierry Helminger (National Museum of Natural History)
  • Netherlands: Bert van den Wollenberg (Delft University Botanic Garden)
  • Norway: Vibekke Vange (Ringve Botanical Garden, Trondheim)
  • Poland: Justyna Wiland-Szymanska (Poznan Botanic Garden)
  • Portugal: Dalila Espírito Santo (Ajuda Botanic Garden, Lisbon)
  • Slovenia: Jože Bavcon (University Botanic Garden, Ljubljana)
  • Spain: Alvaro Bueno Sánchez (Atlantic Botanic Garden, Gijón).
  • Sweden: Mari Källersjö (Göteborg Botanic Garden)
  • Switzerland: Pierre-André Loizeau (Geneva Botanic Garden)
  • BGCI: Suzanne Sharrock

 

 

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