News published: 22 November 2022

Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) promotes an integrated approach to the conservation and management of tree species with the ultimate aim that no tree species becomes extinct. For this, BGCI coordinates several global collaborative initiatives encompassed in the framework: Prioritise, Plan, Act and Monitor. Prioritisation of species conservation is done by the Global Tree Assessment (GTA) initiative, which assesses the conservation status of all the world’s tree species.

BGCI makes tree conservation information available via the GlobalTree Portal which can be used to inform the selection of priority sites and target species to develop partnership-led tree conservation initiatives, and serves to monitor ex situ and in situ conservation of tree species. The GlobalTree Portal gives access to information on the almost 60,000 tree species, their distribution, conservation status, and conservation actions. It also contains information provided by other BGCI data tools, such as GlobalTreeSearch, ThreatSearch, PlantSearch, and GardenSearch. These tools are maintained by the contributions of individuals, botanic gardens, and other plant conservation organizations from all over the world.

In addition, the Conservation Action Tracker, displayed in the GlobalTree Portal, presents known information on conservation actions for tree species. The specific conservation actions include:

• species recovery plans;
• ex situ collections;
• propagation protocols;
• in situ management;
• planting;
• policy for species protection, and;
• education/awareness about species conservation.

The information gathered by the Conservation Action Tracker is crucial to guide and prioritise conservation actions. By identifying gaps in tree conservation we are able to facilitate the planning for future conservation actions for the world’s most threatened trees.

We call for your collaboration to share information about conservation actions for tree species that you are working with. The Conservation Action Tracker allows you to make conservation information available for tree species. Thanks to your contribution, BGCI will facilitate connections between organisations/individuals working on similar species, promoting national and international collaboration to cease tree extinction.

To date, the Conservation Action Tracker holds information for more than 2,750 tree species, including 1,563 threatened tree species of which 376 are Critically Endangered. These numbers will increase as more assessments from the Global Tree Assessment are published. With your support, we aim to obtain information for all known Critically Endangered trees on the IUCN Red List, to enable prioritisation of conservation actions, and ensure existing expertise and knowledge are effectively incorporated.