Botanic gardens worldwide are struggling to conserve rare and threatened plant species due to limited space and resources. A new study reveals that living plant collections have reached peak capacity, while international restrictions on plant collecting hinder conservation efforts. The researchers warn that the risk of extinction is accelerating, and the current response is too slow. They call for more botanic gardens in the global south and increased collaboration to safeguard plant diversity.
‘The risk of extinction is accelerating’: world’s botanic gardens raise alarm with space to protect endangered plants running outBotanic gardens around the world are failing to conserve the rarest and most threatened species growing in their living collections because they are running out of space, according to research from the University of Cambridge.
Threatened plants such as these must compete for space in botanic gardens with beautiful, famous – but less endangered – flowers, trees and landscapes that will attract visitors and inspire people to learn about gardening and the natural world. The first botanic gardens were founded during the colonial era, and almost all are located in the west. In the past, botanists from these gardens would engage in “extractive, colonial-type practices”, visiting poorer nations to “pull out whatever plants they or their rich patrons were interested in, bring them back and cultivate them,” Brockington said.
Brexit, for example, has been “catastrophic” for exchanges of plant material between European botanic gardens, he said. “The bureaucracy of seed exchange can be so costly now, it would be cheaper for our staff to personally fly to somewhere like Sweden, with a legal amount of seed, than send it by post.”
BOTANIC GARDENS CONSERVATION ENDANGERED SPECIES PLANT DIVERSITY CLIMATE CHANGE
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