Many have probably already seen this but if not it is an important document.

-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Rowe [mailto:rrowe@...]
Sent: Monday, September 06, 2004 10:52 PM
To: ARAZPA Horticulture Specialist Group
Subject: [ARAZPA Hort.] Botanic Gardens Conservation International



Hi All,

Colin Knight from Melbourne Zoo has passed on the following; it is the
e-newsletter of Botanic Gardens Conservation International. The first
section is a summary of issues from the BGCI conference in Spain earlier
this year. Mark Richardson is a former Curator of Botany at Alice Springs
Desert Park.

Lots of good links and well worth a read.

Cheers, Richard

Botanical and zoological linkages
Coordinator: Mark Richardson

* The amalgamation of botanic garden and zoological displays
which are based on ecological principles are a logical progression to
effective natural history displays.
* The effective and interesting interpretation of plants in
zoos is vital with plant talks being particularly well received.
* Determining your targets is vital if you are going to
measure environmental achievements.
* To help with the understanding needed to provide the correct
plantings for zoos, links between zoos and the botanic gardens in the
countries relevant to the animal displays can be extremely valuable.
* There is need to encourage common work and activities
between zoological and botanical staff to achieve good links.
* The botanical/horticultural work being done in zoos is
expanding to include in situ conservation work - which is beginning to
complement the in situ work done with animals.
* The work that the botanical/horticultural sections of many
zoos are doing shows that they are already contributing to the goals of the
GSPC and the registration of zoos for the International Agenda should be
encouraged.



________________________ IN THIS ISSUE ______________________

* News
* Plant Diversity
* Botanic Gardens - a Noah's ark for plants
* The world's botanic gardens & the global plant stock take
* World biodiversity becoming extinct at levels rivalling earth's past "mass

extinctions"


* Education
- Biodiversity education for all
- Seeking Partnerships to Teach Biodiversity

* Case studies
- Primula biodiversity conservation in Russia
- The present state of biodiversity in Zaire
- Developing an in-country capacity for biodiversity conservation in Haiti

* World Botanic garden congress conclusions
* Garden of the month
* In the potting shed

____________________________________________________________

NEWS

Find out the latest happenings within gardens around the world and stay up
to
date on new plant conservation issues.

http://www.bgci.org/news/index.html

PLANT DIVERSITY

Biodiversity is the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular
habitat
(or in the world as a whole); a high level of plant diversity in particular
is
desirable for may reasons. We know that about 30,000 plants are edible and
about
7,000 have been cultivated or collected by humans for food at one time or
another
but food isn't our only dependency.

http://www.bgci.org/plants/plant_diversity.html


BOTANIC GARDENS - A NOAH'S ARK FOR PLANTS

While we know that botanic gardens contain many different kinds of plants,
it
may come as a surprise to learn that up to one third of the world's
flowering
plants (or some 80,000 species) are in fact in cultivation in at least one
botanic
garden around the world.

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/noahs_ark.html


THE WORLD'S BOTANIC GARDENS & THE GLOBAL PLANT STOCK TAKE

In order to achieve Target 8 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation
(GSPC)
60 per cent of threatened species need to be in accessible ex situ
collections,
preferably in the country of origin, and 10 per cent of them included in
recovery
and restoration programmes by the year 2010. It was with this target in mind

that BGCI embarked on the plant record project - An ambitious online
database
of all of the world's botanic gardens and their collections.

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/gardendatabase.html


WORLD BIODIVERSITY BECOMING EXTINCT AT LEVELS RIVALLING EARTH'S PAST 'MASS
EXTINCTIONS'

This is an old paper but still relevant. It is a report of the paper "Plants

in Peril: What Should We Do?" given by Dr Peter Raven, Director, Missouri
Botanical
Garden, St. Louis, U.S.A. and President of the XVI International Botanical
Congress
at the XVI International Botanical Congress in August, 1999 hosted by the
Missouri
Botanical Garden.

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/massextinctionsBGCN23.html


_______________________ EDUCATION________________________

BIODIVERSITY EDUCATION FOR ALL

Limbe Botanic Garden (Cameroon) aims to develop an international centre for
research,
education, training and recreation to support biodiversity conservation,
with
particular reference to Mount Cameroon.

http://www.bgci.org/education/biodiversity_education_for_all.html


SEEKING PARTNERSHIPS TO TEACH BIODIVERSITY

Biodiversity has been at the heart of the Education Programme at the
University
of Oxford Botanic Garden since the programme was first established in the
early
1990s. As the Education Programme has developed and evolved so has the way
in
which we teach biodiversity.

http://www.bgci.org/education/seeking_partnerships.html


_______________________ CASE STUDIES ______________________

Primula biodiversity conservation in Russia

Thirteen species of primrose grow in Siberia, which accounts for 3% of the
worldwide
Primula biodiversity. More than half of them are in need of conservation.
Many
primrose species are in cultivation as medicinal plants and for the
development
of new decorative cultivars.

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/RussiaNovosibirskBGCN24.html

The state of biodiversity in Zaire

The Botanic Garden of Eala represents the floristic richness of Central
Africa
with between 4 to 5,000 local species. It has an area of approximately 370
ha
with special collections (125 ha), forest reserve (190 ha), marshland (50
ha)
and savanna "Euobe" (7 ha). The garden is neglected, the area is not fenced
and
there is unplanned felling of trees. In parts it is poorly defined and the
maps
and registration certificates are missing. The last catalogue was published
in
1924 by Goossens

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/Biodiversity_in_Zaire.html

Developing an in-country capacity for biodiversity conservation in Haiti
The establishment of the Haitian Botanical Foundation in 1996 is described.
The
mission of the Foundation is to work for the protection of the biodiversity
of
Haiti and to promote environmental education.

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/Developing_capacity_biodiversity_Haiti.h
tml

____________________________________________________________

WORLD BOTANIC GARDEN CONGRESS 2004 CONCLUSIONS

During April the 2nd World Botanic Garden congress took place in Barcelona,
many
of you were able to attend and we hope that you felt you benefited from the
range
of presentations and networking opportunities. Thank you to everyone for
their
comments and feedback, all of them will be taken on board for the next
congress.
Follow the link below to download the congress conclusions and all of the
abstracts:

http://www.bgci.org/events/congress_conclusions.html

GARDEN OF THE MONTH - Botanic Garden of Warsaw University, Poland

The first botanic garden in Warsaw was set up in 1811 near the university in

the old town. It was moved in 1818 to the so called Royal Garden where it
occupied
a space of 22.5 ha and was officially opened in 1825. The Garden developed
very
rapidly (in 1824 it already had 10,000 species) until 1834 when the Russian
administration
took two thirds of the area.

http://www.bgci.org/botanic_gardens/BG_Warsaw_University_Poland.html

_______________________ HAVE YOUR SAY ______________________

IN THE POTTING SHED

Most people go on holiday to 'get away from it all' and what better place to

do this than in a botanic garden? To bring in the tourists, however, gardens

are facing the challenge of choosing the 'type' of tourism they want to
encourage.
Complete this issues survey and let us know what attractions would encourage

you to visit a garden.

http://www.bgci.org/home/potting_shed.html