Introduction

Climate change presents a significant threat to plant conservation, a 2-3°C temperature rise could lead to half the world’s plant species being threatened with extinction. The UN Sustainable Development Goal Climate Action (2030) is a key target for halting the climate crisis, but we only have 5 years left to achieve our goal. We need urgent collective action and the ability to reach millions of people, to create more sustainable, inclusive consumption, and ensure support for plant conservation. 

BGCI’s global network of 950+ botanic gardens has a greater collective reach than any single organisation in the world, presenting the opportunity to engage and empower hundreds of millions of people to take meaningful action. 

With a grant from the Big Give’s Green Match Fund, this project has allowed BGCI to bring together education professionals to develop a Declaration of Intent on Climate Action Education. This project has the following aims:

• Aim 1: Bring together over 250 individuals representing botanic garden early-career professionals in education and engagement to co-create a Declaration for Action. 
• Aim 2: At least 100 gardens internationally signed up to our Declaration for Action, committed to delivering climate change and plant conservation action and engagement. 
• Aim 3: Our Declaration for Action presented at the United Nations COP (COP30) in Brazil in November 2025. 
• Aim 4: Reaching 100 million individuals with climate action and plant conservation engagement activities over the next five years. 

Workshop held at the 11th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens (ICEBG)

The 11th ICEBG took place in Seoul, South Korea in June 2025. This event was attended by over 1,700 delegates form 53 countries. The project was announced at the Congress, and two workshops were held to design the declaration. The workshops aimed to identify activities that our members are already doing in education to contribute to climate change solutions, and identify new areas and example activities that collectively would have the greatest impact.

From this workshop seven key goals were identified, and these goals form the foundations of the Declaration. Following on from the Congress the draft Declaration was developed, win consultation with BGCI’s Education Consortium (a group of individuals that represent botanic garden education across the globe).

The Declaration of Intent

The Declaration of Intent on Climate Action Education for Botanic Gardens and Arboretums is a two page document that outlines the commitment that our network makes to addressing climate change solutions, outlines seven key goals where we can have the most impact, and provides example activities under each goal. The intention is that botanic gardens and arboretums will sign up to this Declaration, agreeing to contribute to at least one of the seven goals, and reporting on these activities to BGCI so that we can measure out impact over the next five years.

BGCI will be developing training and resources to support gardens and arboretums to develop activities and programmes aligned with these goals.