Creation of the first National Botanic Gardens Network to coordinate plant diversity conservation in Guatemala

Project Status: Completed 2025

Funded by: Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve via the Global Botanic Garden Fund

Project Partner: Jardín Botánico CECON-USAC

Introduction

Since 2016, the CECON-USAC Botanical Garden has aimed to create a local network of botanical gardens in Guatemala, to facilitate knowledge exchange, identify gaps in plant conservation, and develop a joint conservation strategy for threatened plant species. There have been no formal spaces for discussion or collaboration so this project helped to address this.

Project Goals

The aim of this project was to enhance collaboration, strengthening botanic garden conservation horticultural capacity and improve communication between botanic gardens in Guatemala by establishing a national network of four university gardens—Landivarian Orchid Garden (IARNA/URL), Biological Collections (Universidad del Valle), Zacapa Botanical Garden (CUNZAC), and CECON-USAC Botanical Garden.

Key Achievements

A symposium was held on threatened plant conservation and community engagement as well as two workshops to identify conservation gaps, prioritize five local species, and develop an action plan for one priority species (Prunus lundelliana).

A short course was held for specialists on identification, seed collection, and propagation of threatened species and visits were made to all university gardens to assess strengths, weaknesses, and improve network collaboration.

In addition, there was the drafting and signing an inter-institutional letter of understanding to implement workshop and symposium results, including the action plan.

This project also helped advance the establishment of a Civil Botanists Society to strengthen inter-institutional cooperation and broader participation in conservation and knowledge-sharing.