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A new category ' World Botanic Garden’ has been created for the International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. In return for promoting the competition BGCI will receive 10% of the revenue raised through the entries to the ‘World Botanic Garden category’.

‘Sugar from the Sun’ is a new permanent exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory in Chicago, USA. This ground-breaking exhibit immerses visitors in the world of plants focusing on how they take in and use air, water and sunlight to make sugar-energy inside every leaf.

Showcase your work in plant conservation during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing this August. A poster exhibition detailing the work of over 100 botanic gardens will be displayed in the Science and Technology Park near the Olympic village.

Five exciting new trails will be on offer at Lyon Botanic Garden, France, from 30 April. Focusing on the use of plants in our everyday lives, the ‘Cultivating Well-being’ trails will take people inside the magnificent glasshouses as well as out doors in the botanic garden.

The first ever Growing Schools conference in the UK was a complete sell out with over 200 teachers attending. The aim of the day was to inspire and encourage schools (nursery, primary, secondary and special) to use the outdoor classroom for learning across the curriculum.

Backed by an arresting website, the United Nations’ International Year of The Potato – 2008 has been launched to draw attention to the importance of the potato to the global agricultural economy.

A giant work by Japanese sculptor, Mitsuaki Tanabe, is put on display at the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation headquarters to commemorate the completion of the Svalbard Seed Bank

Are botanic gardens archaic and obscure or thriving 21st century scientific institutions? This is the topic of a one-day symposium which will be held at the Linnean Society of London on 15 May 2008.

On March 13th, the Jardín Botánico Francisco Javier Clavijero Instituto de Ecología was honoured with the visit of Mr Ôlafur Ragnar Grimmson, President of Iceland, during his official visit to Mexico.

Deforestation is now recognised as the second leading contributor of carbon emissions worldwide, after the burning of fossil fuels. The latest edition of BGJournal, supported by the Rufford Foundation, explores the problem and how botnaic gardens can help to resolve it.