The development of the Aliança Brasileira de Jardins Botânicos

In 2018, Guaraci M. Diniz Jr., director of the Jardim Botânico Araribá, São Paulo, Brazil, had the idea of joining forces with other botanic gardens in the Estado do São Paulo to consolidate his own botanic garden and learn from others. Initially two gardens got together, and in 2019 it soon grew to five gardens across the whole of Brazil. The pandemic brought an opportunity of getting together virtually, and in 2021, with the support of BGCI, seven botanic gardens became members of BGCI jointly as a network forming the Aliança Brasileira de Jardins Botânicos.

“We identified a lack of an institution or an initiative that would facilitate interactions between gardens in Brazil” said Guaraci in an interview with BGCI.

The aim of the network is to collaborate towards the conservation and ecological restoration of threatened plant species in Brazil and to share knowledge and experiences between its members. The members of the Aliança in 2021 were:

• Jardim Botânico Araribá – São Paulo
• Jardim Botânico Municipal de Bauru – São Paulo
• Jardim Botânico Inhotim – Minas Gerais
• Jardim Botânico Amazonico Poña – Amazonas
• Jardim Botânico Recife – Pernambuco
• Jardim Botânico UEPB – Paraíba
• Jardim Botânico UNIVILLE – Santa Catarina

In the first year of the creation of the Aliança, the members not only attended training courses and meetings to learn about plant conservation initiatives and technical skills, but they also jointly applied for the BGCI Global Botanic Garden Fund. They successfully received a grant to create a seed exchange network across the gardens of the Aliança. The Jardim Botânico Inhotim and the Jardim Botânico Municipal de Bauru that are already set up with seed banking facilities will lead on the seed exchange. All the gardens in the network will receive training in seed collection, processing and storage. Data and resources will be shared across all the members.

“As part of the project all gardens across the network will receive capacity building on seed conservation, protocols, germination, monitoring, etc.” said Guaraci. “We expect that this project will also stimulate work outside of the network…and we are already seeing this as two more gardens will be joining the Aliança in 2022”.

See here the full interview with Guaraci M. Diniz Jr., funder of the Aliança Brasileira de Jardins Botânicos.