National botanical gardens at the forefront of global plant conservation

The conservatories at the South China National Botanical Garden and Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew

Global changes in land use driven by demands on food, energy, and other resources in response to a rapidly increasing human population have collectively led to escalating environmental challenges, including biodiversity loss, global warming, environmental pollution, and ecosystem degradation. At present, biodiversity is seriously threatened at global, regional, and local scales, which, in turn, threatens our own survival. Biodiversity is a global asset of immense material and non-material value, providing us with food, medicine, building materials, fiber, and the ecological environment required for our well-being and health.1 The United Nations (UN) and some countries around the world have taken a number of measures to protect this biological heritage. The UN have developed the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, the UN Convention to Combat Desertification, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. They are all aimed at achieving sustainable development through international action to tackle global environmental challenges in a coordinated manner. However, problems can arise at a national level in countries where different conventions may be the responsibility of different ministries or officials. For example, even among the countries that have implemented these international conventions or initiatives, not all have done so fully, and, as a consequence, most of the Aichi goals proposed by the CBD in 2010 have not been achieved at the international scale. The barriers to implementation are political and economic issues and, to some extent, the lack of support and coordination from science and technology institutions. Plants form the foundations of ecosystems worldwide, and it has been noted that “to save plants is to save humanity itself.” Botanical gardens are therefore on the front lines of biodiversity conservation, and when properly coordinated within and across countries, they become key institutions that can help shape policy frameworks to meet those targets.