Global Survey of Ex situ Ebony Collections Global Survey of Ex situ Ebony Collections By Emily Beech, Kirsty Shaw, Malin Rivers and George E. Schatz © 2016 Botanic Gardens Conservation International Recommended citation: Beech, E., Shaw, K., Rivers, M. and Schatz, G.E. (2016) Global Survey of Ex situ Ebony Collections. BGCI. Richmond, UK. ISBN-10: 1-905164-63-7 ISBN-13: 978-1-905164-63-9 Published by Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Descanso House, 199 Kew Road, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3BW, UK. Authors: Emily Beech is Conservation Assistant at BGCI. Kirsty Shaw is Conservation Manager at BGCI. Malin Rivers is Red List Manager at BGCI. George E. Schatz is a Curator at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Design: John Morgan www.seascapedesign.co.uk Acknowledgements BGCI would like to thank Rafaël Govaerts and George Schatz for providing the taxonomy for this survey. We gratefully acknowledge all the gardens that shared their collection information as well as photos, herbarium specimens and leaf samples and those who have provided data to BGCI’s PlantSearch database. We would Diospyros lotus (LC) reported in 150 ex situ collections also like to thank Auroville Botanical Garden, Missouri Botanical (Credit: Inmaculada Porras) Garden and Tooro Botanical Gardens for their contributions to the case studies in this report. BGCI would like to thank Missouri Botanical Garden who facilitated this survey as a contribution to the Global Ebony Assessment. BGCI and MBG would like to thank Fondation Franklinia for their generous support of the BOTANIC GARDENS Global Ebony Assessment. CONSERVATION INTERNATIONAL (BGCI) is a membership organisation linking botanic gardens in over 100 Acronyms countries in a shared commitment to biodiversity conservation, sustainable use and environmental education. BGCI aims to mobilize botanic gardens and work BGCI Botanic Gardens Conservation International with partners to secure plant diversity for the well-being of CBD Convention on Biological Diversity people and the planet. BGCI provides the Secretariat for the FFI Fauna & Flora International IUCN/SSC Global Tree Specialist Group. GEA Global Ebony Assessment GSPC Global Strategy for Plant Conservation GTA Global Tree Assessment GTC Global Trees Campaign FAUNA & FLORA INTERNATIONAL GTSG Global Tree Specialist Group (FFI), founded in 1903 and the IUCN International Union for Conservation of Nature world’s oldest international IUCN/SSC International Union for Conservation of conservation organisation, acts to Nature/Species Survival Commission conserve threatened species and MBG Missouri Botanical Garden ecosystems worldwide, choosing solutions that are sustainable, are based on sound science and take account of human needs. THE GLOBAL TREES CAMPAIGN (GTC) is undertaken through a partnership between BGCI and FFI. GTC’s mission is to prevent all tree species extinctions in the wild, ensuring their benefits for people, wildlife and the wider IUCN Red List categories environment. GTC does this through provision of information, delivery of conservation action and support of sustainable use, working with partner organisations around the world. EX Extinct EW Extinct in the Wild CR Critically Endangered EN Endangered MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN VU Vulnerable (MBG) in St. Louis, founded in 1859 DD Data Deficient by Henry Shaw, is a centre for plant NT Near Threatened science, conservation, education LC Least Concern and horticultural display. MBG’s NE Not Evaluated mission is to discover and share knowledge on plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life. 2 Global Survey of Ex situ Ebony Collections Contents Summary ...................................................................................4 1. Introduction ...........................................................................6 1.1 Global ex situ surveys ..................................................6 1.2 The importance of ex situ collections ........................6 1.3 Ebonies .........................................................................7 1.4 Policy context .............................................................10 1.5 Aims and objectives ...................................................10 2. Methodology .......................................................................11 3. Results ..................................................................................13 3.1 Ex situ collections: Taxon level analyses .................13 3.2 Ex situ collections: Individual level analyses ...........14 4. Conclusions and next steps ..............................................17 4.1 Conclusions ................................................................17 4.2 Next steps ...................................................................17 Conserving ebonies in ex situ collections ...................17 Contributing to the GEA ..............................................19 Sharing data ................................................................19 Useful Links .............................................................................20 References ..............................................................................22 Annexes ...................................................................................23 Annex I Ebony taxa with number of reported ex situ collections ..........................................................................23 Annex II Red List publications consulted ..........................31 Annex III Participating institutions .....................................32 Diospyros lotus (LC) reported in 150 ex situ collections Contact us ...............................................................................33 Case studies 1. PlanteKey ....................................................................10 2. Incorporating Diospyros in forest restoration in Uganda ....................................................................16 3. Practical Diospyros conservation in Madagascar .......18 Boxes 1. Global Trees Campaign ................................................ 5 2. Global Ebony Assessment ............................................8 3. Global Tree Assessment ...............................................8 4. PlantSearch .................................................................12 Diospyros lycioides ssp. guerkei (LC) reported in 2 ex situ collections (Credit: Tess Additon, UC Botanical Garden) Global Survey of Ex situ Ebony Collections 3 Summary Ebonies are an economically important tree group, providing Although the conservation status of many Diospyros is currently timber, medicine and food. unknown, only 25% of those taxa known to be threatened are reported in ex situ collections. Their sought-after timber has led to the overexploitation of some species. Safeguarding ebonies both in situ and in ex situ 76 threatened ebony taxa that are reported as absent from collections is essential to ensure effective conservation of collections. These should be brought into ex situ collections this group. as a matter of urgency. A full list of ebony taxa and their representation in ex situ collections is available in Annex 1. In this report we present the results of a survey of global ebony ex situ collections undertaken by Botanic Gardens Conservation Collections were also assessed on an individual level using International (BGCI) as part of our ongoing contributions to the additional data provided by gardens such as the sex and age Global Trees Campaign. This survey was commissioned by of their collections. This analysis showed that for most species Missouri Botanical Garden and forms part of the Global Ebony the sex and the age of the trees were not known. The oldest Assessment. tree reported was 118 years old, but the average age only 17 years old. Botanic gardens were contacted to submit a list of their ex situ collections of ebonies to BGCI’s PlantSearch database. We call for ebony ex situ collections to be expanded to Additional information about these collections, such as age and contain a greater diversity of species and sufficient genetic sex, was also requested. diversity to allow their use in recovery and restoration programmes. It is expected that this report will support and The collection information shows that only 24% of ebony taxa mobilise increased conservation action to protect ebony (193 of 806 taxa) are reported in ex situ collections . species from extinction. Diospyros kaki (NE) reported in 110 ex situ collections (Credit: Inmaculada Porras) 4 Global Survey of Ex situ Ebony Collections Box 1: Global Trees Campaign The Global Trees Campaign (GTC) is a joint initiative between Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) and Fauna & Flora International (FFI) launched in 1999. Since its initiation, the GTC has expanded significantly, running projects that directly support the conservation of threatened tree species with partners in over 25 countries, leading training programmes to build capacity for tree conservation, and campaigning to scale up the use of threatened trees in planting schemes and conservation programmes. The GTC recognises that saving forests will not necessarily save the immense variety of tree species. Individual species play a myriad of economic, ecological, and cultural roles highly valued by today’s society. We depend on trees in our everyday lives – they provide us with food, timber and medicine. Furthermore, millions of species of plants and animals are intrinsically linked to tree species, depending on them for their survival. The GTC therefore