The 2nd World Botanic Gardens Congress, held in Barcelona, Spain from the April 17 - 22, 2004, built on the success of the 1st World Botanic Gardens Congress in Asheville in 2000. The theme for the Congress, Botanic Gardens - A World of Resources and Heritage for Humankind provided a stimulating, comprehensive and extensive programme. This Congress provided a forum for about 500 delegates from botanic gardens in 62 countries to consider matters of mutual importance and concern for global plant conservation.
BGCI is extremely grateful to the Botanic Garden and the Botanic Institute of Barcelona for hosting the Congress. Barcelona is a wonderful venue for a Congress and the Barcelona Botanic Garden highlights the importance botanic gardens play in plant conservation and environmental education in the local community and beyond.
There were 13 plenary addresses presented which provided valuable insights on the importance of biodiversity and how to conserve it, 47 symposia, round-table discussions and workshops, over 80 posters and informal lunch-time workshops and debates and around the Congress themes. The conclusions from each theme are included in this article (see BOX)
The Congress reviewed the implementation of the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation and developed targets to support Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC). The consultation paper on International Agenda targets is included in this article (see article in this issue of BGjournal).
The Spanish section of the Association of Ibero-Macaronesian Botanic Gardens (Asociación Ibero-Macaronésica de Jardines Botánicos) produced a document, Botanic Gardens - An increasing value (Jardines Botanicos - Un valor en alza), released at the Congress, to highlight the role of botanic gardens and proposed the adoption of an International Day for Botanic Gardens through UNESCO. Delegates welcomed this proposal.
Network meetings were held on Saturday 17th April at the Botanic Institute of Barcelona and were very successful. Regional meetings of staff from gardens in Latin American, Asia and North America were held. There was an all day meeting of the Association of Ibero-Macaronesian Botanic Gardens, a joint PlantNet (Plant Collections Network of Britain and Ireland) and NVBT (Dutch Association of Botanic Gardens Nederlandse Vereniging van Botanische Tuinen) meeting to discuss mutual concerns and a meeting of the French and French-speaking network of Botanic Gardens (Jardins Botaniques de France et des pays Francophones). ADD
Two useful training workshops were held on Sunday 18th April, 2004, The CBD in practice – ideas and examples of implementation in botanic gardens organized by China Williams and Kate Davis of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, U.K. and Developing your on-line botanic garden website by Jamie O’Connell (BGCI).
The inaugural meeting of BGCI’s International Advisory Council was also held on Tuesday 20th April at the Botanic Institute.
The Congress was held in the Annex of the Palau Sant Jordi, part of the complex built for the Olympic Games in 1992 and the new Botanic Institute which has the most wonderful views over Barcelona. The weather was fine and delegates were able to enjoy the view while eating their lunch. The Barcelona City Council gave a beautiful reception in the Barcelona City Hall and the Congress Dinner was held in the Palace de Pedralbes.
There was an enjoyable pre-Congress tour to the Ebro Delta and Tortosa –Beseit Passes and a wonderful afternoon during the Congress was spent either in the Garraf Nature Park or the Marimurtra Botanic Garden in Blanes.
BGCI staff Suzanne Sharrock, Douglas Gibbs and Sarah Kneebone, led by Jamie O’Connell, produced an amusing and informative daily newsletter, Botànico, which will provide a happy reminder of the time we spent in Barcelona.
The Friends of the Barcelona Botanic Garden (Amics del Jardí Botànic) were very helpful to the delegates during the Congress and on the last day presented each delegate with a rose and a bookmark to celebrate St George’s Day (April 23rd).
BGCI would like to thank the staff of our partner organizations particularly Núria Membrives, Director of the Barcelona Botanic Garden and her staff and volunteers, Josep Maria Montserrat, Director of the Botanic Institute and his staff especially Alfonso Susanna and the members of the local organizing and Scientific Committee, Esteban Hernández-Bermejo, Joan Pedrola-Monfort and David Bramwell and Núria Fradera, Representative of the Barcelona City Council.
BGCI is extremely grateful to María José Gallego of Manners Congressos and all her staff especially Anna Benito for providing an efficient and flexible Technical Secretariat by coordinating the venues, the Congress materials, the tours and social events, and all the support personnel, interpreters, hosts and hostesses, technicians and caterers and registering all the delegates.
BGCI is also very grateful for the participation of all the network organizations and would like to thank the plenary speakers, the moderators and both the oral and poster presenters.
Finally, we are very grateful to all the delegates who participated so fully in the meeting, presenting talks and workshops, and posters and moderating session and helping in so many ways to ensure that the Congress achieved its aims and provided a lasting legacy for the botanic garden community through the network links fostered around the world.
Hosts, Donors and Sponsors
The Congress was hosted by the Botanic Garden of Barcelona and the Botanic Institute of Barcelona and organised by the Botanic Garden of Barcelona, the Botanical Institute of Barcelona, the Institute of Culture (Barcelona City Council), the Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona, the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Ministry of Science and Technology (CSIC) and Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI).
We are extremely grateful to the Institute of Culture (Barcelona City Council), the Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Metropolitan Area of Barcelona and the Spanish Council for Scientific Research, Ministry of Science and Technology (CSIC) for providing funding for the Congress.
We are very grateful to the organizations which have sponsored Congress themes:
“Policies” and “Conservation” were sponsored by the HSBC Investing in Nature Programme, “Ecosystem conservation” by British Airways, “Sustainability” by the Mitsubishi Fund for Europe and Africa and “Horticulture and development” by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA).
We would also like to thank the Caves Mont-Ferrant of Blanes, the Latham Expedition Fund of the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, Miami, U.S.A. The Botanical Research Foundation of Idaho, The Bressler Foundation (USA), the Durban Botanic Gardens Trust, SABONET, the Botanical Society of South Africa and the National Botanical Institute, South Africa for other support given.
Conclusions of Symposia, Workshop and Discussion Round Table meetings held at the 2nd World Botanic Gardens Congress 2004
1. Theme A: Implementing Plant Conservation Policies Through Botanic Gardens
1.1 National experiences on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC)
Coordinator: Peter Wyse Jackson
•This symposium reviewed early experiences at national level in the implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, specifically addressing the particular roles, responsibilities and initiatives being undertaken by botanic gardens in relation to the GSPC in several regions.
The conclusions were that:
•Significant progress in GSPC implementation can be reported in many parts of the world and that botanic gardens are often central to these developments.
•There is a clear need for specific organisations and institutions in each country to support and/or act as drivers or facilitators for the implementation of GSPC targets at national levels.
•The importance of incorporating GSPC objectives, including relevant targets and indicators into National Biodiversity Strategies and Action Plans (NBSAPs) was emphasised.
•The opportunities for botanic gardens to support the establishment of national GSPC focal points in each country was noted, or in some cases to act as such national focal points themselves in support of the relevant national authority.
1.2 Implementing Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
Coordinators: Peter Wyse Jackson, Douglas Gibbs and Ehsan Dulloo
•The report of the International Stakeholder Consultation of Target 8 of the GSPC was reviewed and discussed.
•The findings and conclusions of the report were supported by the workshop and it was acknowledged that botanic gardens have a fundamental role and responsibility to assist in Target 8 implementation, including measures in ex situ conservation and to promote the recovery and restoration of threatened plants in situ.
•Efforts being made by BGCI and other organisations to monitor the achievement of Target 8 through the establishment of an on-line plant search meachanism for plants maintained in ex situ collections were noted and welcomed.
1.3 Implementing the GSPC through education in botanic gardens
Coordinator: Julia Willison
This workshop reviewed the draft 2010 targets for botanic gardens proposed for the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation. The recommendations were that botanic garden targets relating to education, communication and awareness should be as follows:
•Every botanic garden to have an education programme to promote Target 14 of the GSPC including the adoption of SMART measurable targets.
•All staff in botanic gardens to receive training in communication, education and public awareness.
It was also recommended:
•That a lay persons’ guide on the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) is produced or one adapted for educators and staff in botanic gardens to use with the public and policy makers. This guide should be translated into different languages.
•That a manual of best practice of relevant and effective education activities is developed and made available to botanic gardens.
•That a mentoring system of educators is established for botanic gardens to support training and development of education programmes.
•That the consultation process to deliver Target 14 considers how to ensure that the GSPC targets are full integrated in the broader context of Article 13 of the CBD and CBD work programmes.
1.4 Developing and implementing Action Plans and Strategies in support of the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation
Coordinators: Mark Richardson and David Galbraith
•As well as the efforts that are being made by individual gardens, numerous networks around the work are effectively developing action plans for the conservation of regional floras.
•Action plans not only assist in the implementation of conservation projects but also provides a guide for the directors of the botanic gardens for the development of future policy.
•The Investing in Nature programme in India will provide both support for the development of the Indian Action Plan as well as the models that will be of assistance to botanic gardens carrying out the Plan in that country.
•With the development of the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation and the GSPC, existing botanic garden action plans should now be reviewed in the light of these initiatives.
•Of the 400 rare species of plants in Russia, 50% are now represented in Russian botanic gardens, which are incorporating in situ conservation into their programmes as well as the more traditional ex situ conservation measures.
1.5 Developing targets for the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation
Coordinators: Peter Wyse Jackson and Suzanne Sharrock
This workshop reviewed the proposals of a BGCI ad hoc international group which met at the Botanic Institute of Barcelona on 16th April 2004 to consider the need for targets for botanic gardens to monitor the achievement of the objectives of the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation and to outline the explicit contribution of botanic gardens worldwide towards the achievement of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC).
•The workshop participants agreed with the conclusions of the international group that such targets are urgently needed and that they should relate to the objectives of the GSPC.
•2010 was agreed as the date by which the botanic gardens community would aim to achieve the targets, harmonizing their implementation with the targets of the GSPC, adopted by the Convention on Biological Diversity in 2002.
•The workshop noted that the proposed targets would relate to the international botanic garden community. However regional and national network organizations and individual botanic gardens would be invited to develop appropriate targets according to regional, national, local needs and institutional priorities and capacities.
•The workshop concluded that botanic gardens should implement targets wherever possible and appropriate through relevant partnerships and collaborations.
•In implementing the proposed targets, the workshop agreed that botanic gardens worldwide should seek to ensure that their activities in conservation are closely linked with activities undertaken in support of National Biodiversity Strategies and Action plans and GSPC initiatives developed at national levels.
•The workshop participants reviewed the 20 proposed targets and suggested that further consultations be undertaken amongst the botanic garden community worldwide to ensure widespread consensus on each before they are formally adopted as a protocol to the International Agenda.
2. Theme B: The practice of plant conservation through botanic gardens
2.1 Implementing ex situ programmes and projects in botanic gardens - Conservation in botanic gardens
Coordinators: Núria Membrives and Maite Lascurain
Key points for the development of programmes and projects noted during the symposium were:
•Strong cultivation experience is one of the most important factors for successful ex situ conservation.
•Countries with less experience in implementing ex situ programmes are aware of this necessity and are hoping to develop appropriate training opportunities and also to encourage exchanges with other countries.
•It is important to encourage and support botanic gardens to cultivate plants. The design of ex situ conservation projects has to be such that it is appropriate to the plants being conserved.
•Botanic gardens can make important contributions to public awareness of and action related to conservation by communicating about their conservation efforts and research.
2.2 Frontiers for Botanic Garden Seed Genebanks
Coordinators: Esteban Hernández Bermejo and Clare Tenner
•A number of networks of seedbanks have already been formed and are allowing seedbanks to cooperate. Such networks should work together to ensure maximum efficiency in meeting Target 8 of the GSPC.
•Several of the presentations looked at ways to improve the quality of collections, and their use for restoration, such as an ecogeographical survey approach to seed collections, passport data, research into seed storage behaviour including finding biochemical markers of the behaviour.
2.3 Implementing the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation at international and national levels
Coordinator: Suzanne Sharrock
•Good progress is being made in the implementation of the International Agenda, with the number of botanic gardens and network organizations that have registered their participation currently standing at 243. Botanic gardens in countries covering all regions of the world have registered, with the exception of institutions in North Africa and the Middle East, where the number of botanic gardens is low. The region with the largest number of registered botanic gardens is in Europe.
•The International Agenda is being used to help guide the development of a national action plan for botanic gardens in India and to guide the activities of the botanic garden network in Indonesia.
•At the regional level, the International Agenda has been used as a key resource in the development of the African Botanic Gardens Network strategy and is helping to guide the development of activities in individual gardens in Africa.
•The partnership that has developed between Cleveland Botanic Garden in the USA and the Lankester Botanic Garden in Costa Rica provides an interesting example of the type of international collaboration outlined in the International Agenda.
2.4 Implementing the International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation at the individual botanic garden level
Coordinator: Suzanne Sharrock
Six papers were presented during this session which focused on the use and implementation of the International Agenda by individual botanic gardens. Some of the key points that came out of the presentations were:
•The Royal Botanic Garden, Hamilton, Canada has used the International Agenda as a basis for reviewing its activities. In order to do this an Excel spreadsheet has been developed which allows gardens to assess their present, and potential future participation in the 211 activities outlined in the International Agenda. The spreadsheet is available for use by other gardens and can be obtained from BGCI.
•The International Agenda was used as the basis for developing a native plant conservation programme at the Meadowlark Botanical Garden in the USA. The garden also finds the International Agenda a useful public awareness and educational tool and it provides a useful link to conservation programmes at the international level.
•The Latvian National Botanic Garden and the Conservatoire et Jardins Botaniques de Nancy in France are using the International Agenda, together with the Action Plan for Botanic Gardens in the European Union as guides in the development of action plans for their gardens.
•The International Agenda provided the basis for the re-orientation of the goals and objectives of the botanic garden in Geelong, Australia. This garden has undertaken a massive change over the last four years and now addresses many of the key issues and challenges outlined in the International Agenda.
2.5 Implementing ex situ programmes and projects in botanic gardens - Conservation in botanic gardens
Coordinator: George Owusu Afriyie
•An integrated approach to plant conservation is essential to include biogeographical studies, in situ research, population monitoring, molecular methods to the use of mycorrhizal agents and the inocula of wild site fungi for translocation of orchids to wild sites.
•Quantifiable performance indicators of the success of plant diversity conservation are necessary for evaluation of the programmes and implementation of the GSPC. These include resources conserved, implementation of improved management, better laws and policies, changes in knowledge, attitudes and behaviours of stakeholders, and reduction of threats to biodiversity.
•The development of protocols is an important aspect of the collection, propagation and ex situ storage of threatened plants as shown by the use of micropropagation for the conservation of threatened bryophytes.
2.6 Models, protocols, practices, practical experience: do we have a full tool kit for botanic garden plant conservation?
Coordinator: Stella Simiyu
•Threat assessment is a key priority and botanic gardens can contribute to this process at national level. In order to enhance the red listing processing, herbaria and taxonomic staff should routinely include threat assessments in their publications and this should be mandatory for publication of new taxa and taxonomic revisions, monographs etc.
•Further refinement of IPA guidelines especially in countries with high plant diversity needs to be undertaken to enable the botanic garden community to utilize them across the board.
•Capacity building in the use of these tools is critical especially in developing countries and there is need for the botanic gardens to strengthen partnerships and share resources in order to achieve this.
•Whilst we have a good indication of tools for targets 2 and 5, there are major gaps for other targets especially the in situ targets. There is need for botanic gardens to identify the key priorities in their regions and develop means and ways to articulate GSPC target 3. This is best achieved through a network environment.
•Botanic gardens should aim to develop partnerships with the in situ conservation community in order to effectively contribute to the achievement of the GSPC targets, thus development of the necessary toolkits should be undertaken in this context.
3 Theme C: Botanic Gardens and Ecosystem Conservation
3.1 Designation, development and management of protected areas: the role for botanic gardens
Coordinators: Ole Hamann and Bert van den Wollenberg
Botanic gardens are involved in habitat conservation in many ways, but botanic gardens approach it differently from other nature conservation organisations:
•they can and frequently do work through partnerships, local communities, etc.
•their research, education, information, etc. are also a vehicle for local involvement.
•they potentially possess a powerful awareness and educational role.
•they can be and sometimes are involved in local habitat conservation.
•they are ideally positioned to help integrate in situ and ex situ conservation.•Nature reserves do not imply that the species in them are automatically protected; species conservation orientated actions such as through micro-reserves must complement the habitat conservation effort.
•Through partnerships, two-way capacity building can be undertaken.
•Political awareness in ecosystem conservation is of key importance.
•Botanic gardens are usually permanent institutions and therefore can provide stable long-term partners where other parties may come and go.
•Important remark: protected areas are sometimes perceived as limiting the local people, whereas in botanic gardens local people can participate in conservation.
3.2 Botanical and zoological linkages
Coordinator: Mark Richardson
•The amalgamation of botanic garden and zoological displays which are based on ecological principles are a logical progression to effective natural history displays.
•The effective and interesting interpretation of plants in zoos is vital with plant talks being particularly well received.
•Determining your targets is vital if you are going to measure environmental achievements.
•To help with the understanding needed to provide the correct plantings for zoos, links between zoos and the botanic gardens in the countries relevant to the animal displays can be extremely valuable.
•There is need to encourage common work and activities between zoological and botanical staff to achieve good links.
•The botanical/horticultural work being done in zoos is expanding to include in situ conservation work – which is beginning to complement the in situ work done with animals.
•The work that the botanical/horticultural sections of many zoos are doing shows that they are already contributing to the goals of the GSPC and the registration of zoos for the International Agenda should be encouraged.
3.3 Building and sustaining a national network of botanic gardens in Russia
Coordinators: Igor A. Smirnov and Lev Andreev
This session included representatives of Russian Botanic Gardens. The participants noted that botanic gardens and arboreta in Russia, whose activities are consolidated by Council of Russian Botanic Gardens and Russian office of BGCI, have made great progress toward the implementation of International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation.
They noted that this important document and the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) have been translated into the Russian language and distributed among all botanical gardens, educational and conservancy institutions in Russian Federation. Based on those international documents the Strategy of Botanical Gardens of Russia in Conservation of Biodiversity was developed and subsequently adopted during a session of the Council of Russian Botanic Gardens.
Taking into account the conclusions of the congress it was recommended to the Council of Botanical Gardens of Russia the following:
•To develop an action plan for plant conservation in botanical gardens up to 2010 and approve it on the nearest session of the Council of Botanical Gardens of Russia;
•To assist in wide use of the International Agenda by Botanical Gardens of Russia for development of the local and regional programmes.
•To promote the registration of botanic gardens participating in the implementation of the International Agenda.
•To prepare and publish the next issue of the newsletter of the Council of Botanical Gardens of Russia and Russian office of BGCI to include summaries of most presentations from the 2nd World Botanic Gardens Congress.
•To conduct the special session of Council of Botanical Gardens of Russia to summarize the results of the activity of botanical gardens in the implementation of the International and National Agenda in plant conservation and adopt the action plant on plant conservation up to 2010.
3.4 Managing invasive aliens
Coordinators: Alvaro Bueno and Brian Huntley
•Six presentations indicated the seriousness with which the botanic garden community is taking its responsibilities regarding the problem of alien invasive species.
•The international community is making efforts to address the programme of Target 10 of the GSPC, with support of the Convention on Biological Diversity, via the Global Invasive Species Programme.
3.5 Building and sustaining national networks of botanic gardens in Latin America: networking the networks
Coordinator: Alberto Gómez Mejía
Desde mi punto de vista, los puntos más sobresalientes de las exposiciones en el panel "Building and sustaining national networks of botanic gardens in Latin America: networking the networks" serían:
•Es fundamental contar con las redes de jardines como mecanismo de intercambio de experiencias, de transferencia de tecnologías, de capacitación recíproca y de instrumento político.
•Es necesaria la cooperación internacional para preservar la flora nativa que se encuentra en peligro de extinción en el Neotrópico.
•Es muy meritoria y plausible la labor que BGCI ha realizado en los países latinoamericanos y del Caribe.
•Es urgente fortalecer los jardines incipientes en aquellos países que no tienen una infraestructura adecuada para conservar su diversidad biológica y ecológica.
•La Red Latinomericana y del Caribe de Jardines Botánicos (ALCJB) debe convertirse en una red de redes.
•Valdría la pena reconsiderar la incipiente organización de Caribbean Islands Botanic Gardens porque implicaría una duplicación de esfuerzos frente a la ALCJB.
•Botanic Garden networks are a fundamental mechanism for the exchange of experiences, transfer of technology, mutual training and to exert political influence.
•International cooperation is essential to preserve the threatened native flora in the Neotropics.
•The important work of BGCI in Latin American and Caribbean countries was acknowledged and welcomed.
•It is urgent to strengthen the new botanic gardens in those countries where there is not an adequate infrastructure to conserve biological and ecological diversity.
•The Latin American and the Caribbean Network should become a Network of Networks. It would be worth consider the inclusion of the organization of the
Caribbean Islands Botanic Gardens (the Caribbean Botanic Gardens for Conservation (CBGC) network) to avoid duplication with the efforts of the ALCJB.
4. Theme D: Environmental education, the sustainable use of plant resources and the awareness of plant diversity
4.1 Interactive multimedia - using new technology for education
Coordinator: Tina Roig
•Putting education resources on-line is a good idea as you can reach a huge potential audience, of different demographical make-up to regular botanic garden visitors and it enables you to share knowledge and ideas with the international botanic garden community.
•Education programmes can be used to address inclusion issues and make contacts between children of different nationalities and cultures based around the European town ‘twinning’ scheme.
•Story anthologies can be a useful resource for education programmes and their use on the internet can expand their use by other institutions.
•Art shows can attract significant numbers of visitors and media attention to gardens which may suffer from being overlooked by the local community.
•Partnership projects can put a new spin on garden interpretation and educational themes.
4.2 Making plants relevant and accessible to the public
Coordinators: JuanMa López and Paco Villamandos
Recommendations:
•Enfocar los programas de acuerdo con los intereses y expectativas de la comunidad, incluyendo para ello a los diferentes agentes de la comunidad.
•Incluir a los maestros como promotores de los programas educativos de los JJBB.
•Recrear un ambiente educativo que incluya técnicas y elementos diversos, de forma que puedan desarrollarse ambientes con un fuerte potencial educativo.
•El educador debe asumir el papel de moderador y de transmisor de los conocimientos adecuándolos convenientemente a los diferentes niveles.•Focus programmes according to the interests and expectations of the community, taking into account the various actors in the community.
•Include teachers as promoters of the education programmes of botanic gardens.
•Re-create an education environment that includes diverse techniques and elements, in order to develop an environment with a strong educative potential.
•Educators must assume the role of moderators and assist in the transmission of knowledge, adapting it to the different levels.
4.3 Engaging new audiences
Coordinators: Sue Minter and Alexandra Escudeiro
•It is important to survey who the public are (their profile) and what they want.
•Botanic gardens should address audiences specifically e.g., ‘new audiences’, children, and teenagers.
•Botanic gardens need a publicity campaign to develop a culture of understanding about the garden among potential and existing visitors and make further surveys with larger sample size.
•All garden staff can have education as part of their job description and give talks to public (including children).
4.4 Presenting Plants through outreach exhibits
Coordinator: Laurel McIvor
•Capacity building in environmental education is important for developing focussed and effective exhibits.
•High quality, effective exhibits require significant financial investment, should “provoke, relate and reveal”; designers and marketing companies are worth their cost; use strong images and test your product.
•Being imaginative, brave, and tenacious with the media will help to attract new audiences.
•Latch on to a media story that captures public interest and take it one step further to communicate your message.
•Establish partnerships that contribute complementary expertise and mutually benefit from the project; clearly define goals and each partners´ responsibilities.
•Acknowledge and include your sponsors continually, endeavour to include them in every media contact.
4.5 Developing a Self-Funding Education Program
Coordinator: Janelle Hatherly
•Regardless of location, size or age of botanic gardens the issues, challenges and solutions are the same when it comes to getting education adequately resourced.
•There is no such thing as a self-funding education program because effective learning takes time and is about thinking and engaging in meaningful dialogue.
•High quality educational activities generally last a few hours, are conducted in small groups and if we are serious about catering for the whole community, they are also inexpensive. Our challenge is to work out ´creative´ ways to get more money or more people to run education programs.
Ways to access additional resources for botanic garden education programmes:
More dollars -
•Raise the profile of education within our organisations by relating it to the organisational mission and by doing loads of evaluation and keeping sound statistics. ´Dollars for education are an investment rather than a subsidy.´
•Convince senior management that to allocate appropriate core funding to education units and keep any funds generated from education activities to subsidise those programs that incur high costs but achieve effective educational outcomes.
•Education staff should become familiar with what opportunities for funding are ‘out there’ and become skilled at writing grant proposals. A golden rule to operate by is: ‘at any given time you should have a grant or funding proposal or submission in somewhere’.
More people –
•Create a learning culture - use other staff members to deliver programs occasionally, train a pool of casual staff whose costs of face-to-face delivery is covered by fees for service. (The staff of a botanic garden in Israel spend 10% of their time in education activities).
•Use volunteers but be aware that they aren´t free but have the same needs and rights as paid staff.
•Form partnerships with other organisations to develop socially relevant programs (e.g related to health or employment) and share costs, resources and staff.
5. Theme E: Sustainability: the contribution of biodiversity to sustainable living
5.1 Environmental sustainability: addressing local issues for conservation and education
Coordinator: [to be added]
•There is a growing urgency to achieve sustainability of natural plants for use by local people for food, fuel and medicinal uses.
•Education programmes provide a key method for providing local urban populations with the necessary skills and knowledge for conservation of indigenous plants in developing countries.
•Several excellent model programmes have been developed to achieve a new awareness of the needs of the local populations to help attain sustainability of their local plant resources e.g., Ghana, South Africa and Argentina.
•Successful programme development for plant sustainability requires development of programmes relevant to the needs of the local community.
•Formalized agreements with local authorities and donors will help ensure successful conservation programmes.
•There is an urgent need to establish appropriate models of propagation of medicinal plants to provide employment and support for local populations and conserve plant stocks.
5.2 Designing and implementing sustainable botanic gardens and evaluating the ecological footprint
Coordinator: Janet Marinelli
•Botanic gardens have a combination of resources and skill-sets found nowhere else that can be tapped to develop new plant-based technologies that help solve environmental problems and encourage the transition to a bio-based economy.
•Research projects at the Montreal Botanical Garden, are already addressing these problems, such as the use of plant species to decontaminate brownfield sites in urban areas, and the construction of living walls made of willow stems to reduce noise along roadways.
•Botanic gardens can be models of sustainable ecological landscape design and maintenance for their communities.
•The Jardin Botànico de Barcelona was designed to be such a model of ecologically appropriate landscape design and maintenance for a Mediterranean climate.
5.3 Botanic Gardens: what is their role in tourism?
Coordinators: David Bramwell and Antoni Aguilella
•Botanic gardens have great tourist potential, and if they are developed in a planned and coordinated way, could contribute to expanding and diversifying local tourism and the sustainability of the gardens themselves and the surrounding areas.
•Tourism in botanic gardens can generate profits for both the gardens and the local communities.
•The main priority should be promoting botanic gardens in the fields of cultural and natural tourism (including agro-tourism, rural tourism, ecotourism and nature tourism).
•A single recipe for all botanic gardens does not exist. Each one has to explore its own potential according to the needs and aspirations of the local community.
5.4 Ecotourism - Is there a role for botanic gardens?
Coordinators: Lucy A. Sutherland and Judy du Plooy
•The appropriateness of botanic gardens involvement in ecotourism is dependent on several factors including the status of local and national tourism, perception of the touristic opportunities held by the industry, and the botanic garden location, setting, mission and availability of resources.
•Ecotourists can play an important financial role in supporting the sustainability of botanic gardens, and contributing to local sustainable development and capacity building of communities.
•Botanic gardens need to mainstream themselves into the regional economy, in areas such as tourism, to ensure their financial sustainability.
•There is a hierarchy of basic needs for botanic gardens to ensure visitation and use:0 garden site, lawns trees, water
1 parking, toilets, tea rooms
2 clean, safe as an attraction
3 colours, diversity, informative
4 quality goods and services
5.5 Financial sustainability of the garden: an African perspective
Coordinators: George Owusu-Afriyie, Chris Dalzell, Ndam Nouhou, Christopher Willis and Douglas Gibbs
•Botanic gardens have the potential to use fundraising as an opportunity to evaluate their strategies and to develop and strengthen partnerships.
•There is a need for botanic gardens to evaluate their own capacities, in terms of facilities, personnel and operational procedures, in order to maximise the efficiency of their work programme within their local context.
•There is a need for gardens to champion their work and their role within their own local communities, partners, countries and internationally.
•Gardens have an opportunity to increase their relevance and attraction to people, thus opening up the potential to raise funds from a wider range of potential sources, for example enterprise development, job creation and public health grant-making bodies as well as from increased visitor support.
•Botanic gardens can adapt and adopt business models, entrepreneurship and innovative management structures in order to increase their capacity to operate in competitive, changing and challenging socio-economic environments.
5.6 Addressing local needs: evaluating individual botanic garden contributions to economic development
Coordinator: Brian Huntley
•The Eden Project has demonstrated how the right leadership at the right place and the right time can lead to success. The innovation of the Eden Project, the local need for social and economic regeneration and the availability of massive funding from the UK government, the EU and private sources, plus the existence of an available tourist market, resulted in the instant success of the project, contributing to economic upliftment, communication of biodiversity messages and a role model for the botanical garden community.
6. Theme F: Botanic garden horticulture and development
6.1 Volunteers in conservation - using volunteers to implement plant conservation
Coordinator: Laurel McIvor
•Volunteers support conservation research by increasing the research effort, providing financial contributions, promoting conservation education (the participant and the ripple effect of them sharing their experience) and increasing the project profile / media interest in the work.
•Developing countries do not have a culture of volunteerism and therefore need innovative ways to recruit volunteers: e.g., having university students commit to a certain number of hours of work per week in exchange for training, work experience, and a small honorarium.
•Corporate secondments with clearly defined goals and responsibilities can offer valuable assistance with specific skills (e.g., in information technology and networking) and related staff training.
•Volunteers from areas local to botanic gardens help integrate the gardens with community culture, science, and education and help to engage youth for the future.
6.2 New botanic gardens – issues and challenges
Coordinator: Edelmira Linares
•A sound vision was noted for the new botanic gardens as well as those in the planning stage. The presentations demonstrated that botanic gardens develop master plans and missions in a professional and well-documented manner.
•Another notable fact was the regional focus on native plants of the Latin American botanic gardens and the diversification of those in Europe with both native and exotic species of cultural importance.
•Most of the presentations emphasized the importance of education at various levels as in botanic gardens which included the general public to the technicians and professionals such as future agronomists.
•The variation of the presentations included in the session demonstrated that the size of the botanic garden is secondary while its activities associated with education, public awareness building and, in particular, its ability to link itself with the surrounding community are more important; these goals can be accomplished through educational programmes as well as by creating opportunities for visitors to experience contacts with nature in a delightful and invigorating manner.
•The contributions drew attention to the need for consultation and participation of specialists as well as knowledge of the work and objectives of the botanic garden as part of the process of planning and implementing the new botanic garden. These factors can help to ensure success and save time and effort in the development of a modern, successful botanic garden so that they can be major players in biodiversity conservation and generators of the knowledge in this field.
6.3 What should botanic gardens be growing?
Coordinators: David Rae and Tim Upson
•Collection policies should be wider than pure accessions or acquisitions policies and should therefore include information on topics such as representation, labeling, standards of information, plant records and geographical representation. A policy should also be regarded as flexible to allow for change.
•Audit and review are important components of a Collections Policy as they allowed users and managers to see how closely the garden was adhering to its policy.
•Setting a few targets to improve weak aspects of the collection was useful - these could include, for example, targets to improve % verification, % wild origin or total accession numbers.
•National policies that included several regional gardens were an efficient mechanism to collect and maintain a large, but decentralized, collection. Criteria should be set to maintain standards across the whole collection.
•The cultural or heritage value of gardens in terms of their design was now reasonably well accepted but the cultural or heritage value of the plants themselves was not yet valued and we should work to reverse this attitude.
•Useful lessons might be learnt from other organizations that have collections policies such as zoos and libraries.
•As collections take time, money and expertise to amass, they should not be deaccessed at will, if at all. Gardens should think very seriously about deaccessing a collection before doing so and should always consider other avenues for research or should gift the collection to another garden.
•Even though some people might want each plant in a collection to be justified on the grounds of use and value, this was not possible or reasonable. Only a small percentage of library or museum collections are used constantly but the collection is valuable because of its wholeness or completeness and less frequently used plants still have value.
•Garden should put information on their collections on the world wide web. This way it would be easier for researchers and others to find the plants they required and it would also be easier for collection managers to assess their own collections in terms of duplication or omissions.
•The value of horticultural taxonomy to the management of collections was stressed.
•Cultivars were an important component of collections and there was no reason why they should not be managed with the same degree of rigor as wild plant collections.
•The relationship between, and integration of, herbarium and living collections was stressed.
•The importance of good and accurate plant records was stressed.
6.4 Conservation databases
Coordinators: Richard Piacentini and Diane Wyse Jackson
This session concentrated on current databases and their future development within the botanic garden setting.
Major points outlined were:
•Databases should never be seen as static, but need to be flexible to allow for future development of requirements – even if those requirements have not yet have been anticipated.
•Databases are set up as a solution to a address specific problems and applications, as seen in the examples presented to the meeting from India and the Netherlands.
•Multi-lingual international ‘Look Up’ tables that are readily accessible from a centralized location and downloaded into localized databases look to be a feature of future databases, so that users are all working from a common set of files and field attributes .
•Web-based databases will be increasingly commonplace – therefore custodianship of data and security issues will have to be clearly addressed so that controversy can be avoided at a later stage.
6.5 New botanic gardens – issues and challenges
Coordinator: James Cullen
•The range and diversity of new botanic gardens in development exemplified by the four gardens described in this symposium – from urban to rural, general to specific – is astonishing and hopeful for the future. All had drawn on professional advice, both local and international, in their planning.
•New gardens are able to meet their missions in innovative ways as they not constrained by tradition, infrastructure or older plantings.
•The importance of providing educational and amenity services for children was stressed as a major objective by all four gardens.
•All stressed the importance of the physical environment in which they are being developed: soil condition, aspect, pollution and the need for a guaranteed water supply were stressed.
•All of the gardens stressed their commitment to the conservation, both in situ and ex situ of their local flora.
7. Theme G: Botanic garden research
7.1 Use of molecular techniques in plant conservation
Coordinator: Alfonso Susanna
•The future impact of molecular techniques in conservation cannot be evaluated yet, but they have already caused a revolution on classic approaches to conservation genetic analyses.
•The panoply of molecular tools is now impressive: sequencing, allozymes, RAPDs, AFLPs, RFLPs and microsatellites, they cover all the possible levels of study, from individuals to species or genera.
•Probably, molecular markers will represent, in the long run, as with molecular methods in systematics, a tremendous change both in methodology and in our understanding of biodiversity.
7.2 Research advances on the study of the Mediterranean flora
Coordinator: Pep Ninot
•The comprehensive use of plant collections (herbaria, cultivated plants) and data banks is absolutely basic to any project on the flora, and provides more and more diverse pathways to conduct quality research.
•The ongoing addition of fields such as conservation biology and ecological restoration reinforces the important role of botanic gardens, i.e. linking taxonomic and floristic studies to the practical use of plant diversity, through multiple cultivation techniques and methods in studying biodiversity.
7.3 Science and horticulture working together
Coordinator: David Rae
•Micropropagation and cryopreservation are important and valuable techniques in the conservation of critically endangered species.
•Horticulture has an important role to play in delivering at least 8 of the targets in the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation and horticultural staff should be encouraged to get involved in the Strategy.
•We should acknowledge and celebrate botanic garden horticulture as a distinctive and specialist branch of horticulture and recognise the valuable contribution of horticulture to integrated conservation strategies.
•The breeding of new cultivars of fruit and ornamental plants in botanic gardens should be recognised as a valuable and legitimate aspect of botanic garden research.
•As well as traditional, mainstream areas of research botanic gardens should develop cross cutting themes such as studies relating to aspects of climate change as a way of bringing together different groups of science staff as well as scientists and horticulturists or education staff and scientists.
•Botanic gardens should investigate areas of applied research such as the use of plant products for construction, the use of plants for the purification of harbour mud or the removal of heavy metals in water from tropical mining.
•Plants growing in both botanic gardens and in the parks and gardens of metropolitan areas can provide a useful resource for, and valuable insight into, the biogeographical and ecomorphological analysis of woody plants.
7.4 Education Research
Coordinators: Julia Willison and Janelle Hatherly
•The only way to measure achievement of educational objectives and corporate missions is through evaluation and research.
•Education research can be part of a learning experience for children by empowering them to become researchers.
•A range of research tools is needed to evaluate education programmes in botanic gardens.
•The results of research can offer excellent opportunities for botanic garden education programmes to evolve.
•Botanic garden education programmes cater for a wide range of audiences. We need to ensure education research is carried out with the diversity of audiences.
•If botanic gardens are going to carry out research then they need to implement the results. If they’re not going to use the results of the research then there is little point in doing it.
7.5 Botanic gardens and plant taxonomy: Achieving Target 1 of the GSPC
Coordinators: Peter Crane and Etelka Leadlay
•Collaboration and networks are very important for achieving this target
•Botanic gardens should participate according to their own priorities, capacities and interests.
•Those local national and regional botanic gardens with an interest-focus on the production of local, national, and regional lists should do so in conjunction where possible with Target 2.
•An especially useful focus for local, national and regional botanic gardens would be on local, national and regional endemics likely to a of special importance for the GSPC.
•It is it important that information from Target 1 is made available as it is produced because of the relevance and contribution of this target to other targets.
•The importance of engaging the non botanic garden community in the effort was stressed (e.g museums, horticulture, community and universities).
7.6 Recent advances in Restoration Ecology and Research
Coordinators: Deanna Rokich and Dave Merritt
•An integrated approach to restoration, incorporating a number of research disciplines (e.g. propagation science, conservation genetics, weed control and restoration science) is the most effective way to achieve results.
•Adaptive management (i.e. management of on-ground works that is guided by information provided by researchers based on good science) is also useful for improving restoration success.
•Weed control and amelioration of other disturbances (e.g., fire and feral animals) are the greatest challenges for restoration, particularly in urbanised areas.
•The use of reference sites (measures of diversity, abundance, vegetation composition etc. at undisturbed sites) to develop measures of success and completion criteria should always be included.
•Collaboration and partnerships with universities and other agencies external to one's own is vital to solving restoration problems.
8. Theme H: Heritage
8.1 Environmental reconciliation: a vision for botanic gardens
Coordinator: Steve Forbes
•The historical and philosophical context of botanic gardens and debated the proper role of botanic gardens in the twenty-first century.
•The importance of botanic gardens in exploring the plant kingdom and in linking plants, people and culture were discussed
•Historical and contemporary case studies explored connections between people and plants locally and globally.
8.2 Ethnobotany and indigenous knowledge – the role of botanic gardens
Coordinator: Robert Bye
•As botanic gardens expand their role of promoting plant conservation (especially where people have lost direct contact with plants such as in some developed countries and urban areas), the role and recognition of indigenous knowledge is needed for the efficient utilization of plant products for sustainable development.
•Small botanic gardens are able to respond to the changing requirements of communities as long as the botanic garden maintains effective communication, promotes active participation of the local people (e.g., autosuggestion, take the botanic garden to the people), and the people assume their own responsibilities.
•Botanic gardens need to reach out to the people to effectively demonstrate the “plants pay”.
•Botanic gardens of the North can facilitate the recognition and respect for indigenous knowledge by facilitating:
- awareness of the origin and history of the plants that are the basis of the their livelihood (e.g., local industry in urban areas);
othe initial development (e.g., training, resources, etc.) in response to a community’s desire to share local plant knowledge (among themselves, to new generations, to tourists, etc.), and
- North to South collaboration needs to mature into South to South collaborations (e.g., between communities within the same country, between two developing counties, etc.).
•Communities and botanic gardens need to establish at the initial stages how indigenous knowledge is to going to be documented and shared so that it is clear what, how much, in what format etc, of the information will be available to the public as well as the information that is restricted.
8.3 The value and future of private collections
Coordinator: Rodger Elliot
•Curation of plant collections by amateur and professional holders can make a valuable contribution to plant conservation, provide reference collections and education.
•Collection holders require scientific as well horticultural expertise.
•Networks have fundamental function for information exchange.
•Necessity of ongoing propagation and distribution of propagules.
•Collections can cover ornamental plants, crops and wild flora.
8.4The botanic garden as a cultural and scientific heritage
Coordinators: Esteban Hernández Bermejo, Joan Pedrola-Monfort and Vernon Heywood
Botanic gardens have increasing value; they are institutions committed to local and regional peoples and societies in the service of socio-cultural and economical development, the sustainable use of biological and cultural diversity, the traditional ways of exploitation of natural resources and environmental values that assure the wealth of humankind and the rest of the biosphere.
