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Strengthening the Conservation Value of Ex Situ Tree Collections Strengthening the conservation value of ex situ tree collections N ICOLE C AVENDER,MURPHY W ESTWOOD,CATHERINE B ECHTOLDT G ERARD D ONNELLY,SARA O LDFIELD,MARTIN G ARDNER D AVID R AE and W ILLIAM M C N AMARA Abstract With % of trees (. , species) threatened Introduction with extinction there is an urgent need for botanical gardens . to protect threatened trees in dedicated conservation collec- lobally, % of all trees ( , species) are threa- tions. Species conservation is mentioned in the mission Gtened with extinction (Oldfield et al., ). statements of most major botanical gardens, yet the actual Although protecting a threatened species in its natural habi- conservation value of existing ex situ tree collections is tat (in situ conservation) is the ideal and most effective way low. We conducted interviews with members of the botan- to prevent extinction, there is a growing realization that ’ ical garden community and organized a symposium at the complementary protection efforts outside a species natural ’ th Global Botanic Gardens Congress to identify challenges habitat (ex situ conservation) are also crucial for species and collect recommendations to improve living ex situ tree survival (Kramer et al., ; Oldfield & Newton, ; collections. We summarize and evaluate this information to Pritchard et al., ). The success of in situ conservation facilitate gardens becoming more effective agents for global is dependent on a variety of factors, including accurate as- tree conservation. Experts agree that gardens offer valuable sessment of threats, local community and government en- strengths and assets for tree conservation. Some challenges gagement, and the susceptibility of native habitat to exist, however, including a lack of strategic conservation climate change (Robinson, ; Oldfield & Newton, ; focus, collection management limitations, gaps in funda- Pritchard et al., ). Ex situ conservation approaches mental biological information for trees, and a lack of global can complement in situ conservation by strategically avoid- coordination. Solutions are offered to facilitate gardens and ing these confounding factors. In some cases a small popu- arboreta of all sizes to participate more effectively in tree lation size or an imminent threat could render in situ conservation. Prioritizing genetically diverse tree collec- conservation of a tree species unviable, making ex situ con- tions, participating in conservation networks, developing servation the only option to prevent its immediate extinc- tree-specific conservation models and guidelines, and tion (McNamara, ; Ma et al., ). Storage in a seed strengthening tree science research efforts are a few exam- bank is the most economic and practical way to protect ples. Most importantly, a more coordinated global effort is tree species, but many trees, such as oaks, cannot be stored ‘ ’ needed to fill knowledge gaps, share information, and build using existing technologies. These exceptional species must conservation capacity in biodiversity hotspots to prevent the be housed in living collections (Pence, ). Furthermore, loss of tree species. while threatened tree species are growing in living collec- tions, experts can study how they develop, reproduce, and Keywords Arboretum, botanical garden, ex situ, Global combat disease, and how they might respond to climate Strategy for Plant Conservation, Global Trees Campaign, in change and assisted migration efforts. situ, integrated conservation management, tree conservation The field of ex situ conservation by botanical gardens and This paper contains supplementary material that can be arboreta (henceforth referred to as gardens) has been de- found online at http://journals.cambridge.org veloping since the s (Bramwell et al., ; Falk, ; Falk & Holsinger, ; Guerrant et al., ). Since the first International Botanic Gardens Conservation Congress, in , governments and non-profit organizations have been working to stimulate greater involvement by gardens in plant conservation. Following the Congress, Botanic NICOLE CAVENDER,MURPHY WESTWOOD (Corresponding author), CATHERINE Gardens Conservation International was founded to support BECHTOLDT and GERARD DONNELLY The Morton Arboretum, 4100 Illinois Route 53, Lisle, IL 60532, USA. E-mail [email protected] and coordinate the conservation activities of gardens world- SARA OLDFIELD Botanic Gardens Conservation International, Richmond, wide. It also promotes and evaluates the progress of national Surrey, UK and international conservation policy initiatives, such as the MARTIN GARDNER and DAVID RAE Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which outlines WILLIAM MCNAMARA Quarryhill Botanical Garden, Glen Ellen, USA targets to be achieved by (CBD, ), and the Received June . Revision requested July . International Agenda for Botanic Gardens in Conservation Accepted October . (BGCI, ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © http://journals.cambridge.org2015 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, Page 1 of 9 doi:10.1017/S0030605314000866Downloaded: 10 Feb 2015 IP address: 205.243.145.122 2 N. Cavender et al. There are several resources available to guide ex situ con- collections: ‘botanic gardens and other ex situ facilities servation efforts, such as the IUCN Red List (IUCN, ) such as seed banks are among the most extensive yet under- and NatureServe threat status listings. There are databases used plant conservation resources in the world’ (Maunder available for searching collections of living plants (e.g. et al., ). Gardens have the expertise, facilities and mis- Botanic Gardens Conservation International’s PlantSearch, sion to conserve threatened trees, yet few of them are doing and the Global Biodiversity Information Facility), confirm- it effectively (Maunder et al., ; Kramer et al., ). ing taxonomic identity (e.g. International Plant Names Clearly, certain barriers exist to establishing and/or main- Index), and exploring distribution maps (e.g. Map of Life). taining a high-value ex situ conservation collection of threa- For a review of electronic resources see Lughadha & Miller tened trees. (). There are several manuals available that outline the practical application of plant conservation by gardens, addressing issues such as collecting germplasm for genetic Objectives and methods diversity, developing propagation techniques and imple- We employed two strategies to evaluate the current state menting reintroduction programmes (Guerrant et al., of ex situ tree conservation. Firstly, we conducted inter- ;Krameretal.,; Maschinski & Haskins, ; views (Supplementary Material )with leaders of the BGCI, a; Center for Plant Conservation, ). botanical garden and conservation communities (see These resources are useful tools for plant conservation. Acknowledgements) to identify barriers to ex situ tree con- However, what gardens can do to support conservation of servation and to explore solutions to the questions posed in trees, specifically, has been given less attention. Conserving the interviews. Secondly, we organized a symposium at the tree species in living collections poses particular challenges, th Global Botanic Gardens Congress in New Zealand in such as accession longevity and space constraints, compared October , which included four talks, by WMN, NC, with herbaceous plants. These factors, combined with the DR and SO. Each presented a case study of how their institu- problem that long-lived trees adapt more slowly to climate tions are contributing to ex situ conservation (summarized in change (Aitken et al., ; Gill et al., ), make the devel- Supplementary Materials –). The presentations were fol- opment of tree-specific conservation resources vital. One lowed by an open discussion, which included many members such resource is a reference manual produced by Botanic of the garden community, to promote the exchange of ideas Gardens Conservation International through the Global on ex situ tree conservation. Trees Campaign (Oldfield & Newton, ), which explains From the interviews and conference symposium there the steps institutions can take to protect threatened tree emerged a wealth of information and ideas relating to the species, starting with ex situ conservation but also emphasiz- current state of ex situ tree collections. Here, we synthesize ing in situ conservation, environmental education, public the opinions, ideas and recommendations of leaders of the engagement, and reintroduction. global garden community, and formulate strategies to over- Despite these resources, challenges to ex situ tree conser- come challenges and streamline efforts to make gardens vation still exist and much work is needed to improve the more effective agents for global tree conservation. conservation quality of living tree collections in gardens. Many threatened trees are underrepresented in ex situ collec- tions, and genetic breadth is limited (Cibrian-Jaramillo et al., Challenges and recommendations ; Cires et al., ). The systemic shortfall in ex situ col- lections is illustrated by assessments of the progress of U.S. Evolving the garden mission and collection curation gardens towards achieving Target of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, which calls for the preservation of % Protecting plant species for the purpose
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