Monday, 03 October 2005

Groundbreaking environment summit will scale 3,000m

Leading figures in the drive to protect Earth’s vulnerable natural habitats head for China this week in a groundbreaking initiative to conserve global biodiversity. Led by the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE), the UK-China: Partners in Science Plant Conservation Programme will see 13 top-ranking scientists visiting four cities to meet their counterparts from China’s expanding community of Botanic Gardens, before breaking with convention and climbing 3,200m up a mountain to develop proposals on the way forward for conservation and sustainability.

The delegation of Directors from the Royal Botanic Garden Kew (RBGK), the Natural History Museum (NHM) and RBGE, along with the heads of nine major Chinese botanical institutions, will hold two days’ of discussions in Beijing, Wuhan and Kunming before travelling to the Southwest and RBGE’s flagship Jade Dragon Field Station on the Yulong Xue Shan, near Lijiang. For the first time a remote mountainside location will be the centre of top-level planning on issues such as the reintroduction of plants to their natural habitats and the development of sustainable production systems for medicinal and other useful species.

“With over 100 years’ experience of working in China, RBGE may be considered an obvious contributor to the UK-China Year of Partnership in Science”, explained Delegation Coordinator Professor Stephen Blackmore. “What makes this initiative significant is that we do so in partnership with research counterparts from Kew, the Natural History Museum and botanical institutions in China. Through our debates on the Yulong Xue Shan we can demonstrate the fundamental importance of plants in underpinning biodiversity, in general, and human life, in particular. It is a message which has never been more acute and it will require us to build on existing collaborations.”

Professor Blackmore’s views were echoed by Professor Sir Peter Crane, RBGK, who commented: "I am delighted by this opportunity to partner our colleagues in China on the issues that concern all of us: the long term preservation and sustainable use of plant diversity. This will be a landmark event for plant conservation which combines the best of modern approaches from the three major institutions in the UK and their counterparts in China".

The significance of the venture has also been underscored by Professor Johannes Vogel, NHM, who added: “This exciting opportunity will bring together the leading botanists from China and the UK. Both countries share a long tradition in exploring and conserving plant biodiversity. Now, we will work together with new cohesion to achieve the goals of the Global Plant Conservation Strategy”.

ENDS

EDITOR’S NOTES

Participants arrive in Beijing on Sunday October 9 for a programme which will include:

The Partners in Science Plant Conservation Programme Science is supported by the Royal Society (RS), the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) with visits to Beijing, Wuhan and Kunming. As part of this event Tim Summers, British Consul General in Chongqing, will host an evening reception at the Green Lake Hotel, Kunming to celebrate the Year of Partnership in Science.

The British Garden at the Kunming Horticultural Exposition re-launch is supported by the British Consul General in Chongqing. Created by an RBGE team, led by Deputy Director of Horticulture David Paterson, working in close cooperation with Kunming Institute of Botany, it was supported by the then British Ambassador Sir Anthony Galsworthy and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as part of the 1988 “Britain in China” campaign. Winner of one of the four Grand Prizes presented at the Horticultural Exposition, it has continued to be an important visitor attraction in Kunming.

Last year the managers of Expo invited RBGE to redevelop and re-launch the British Garden. Work on the garden has been carried our during 2005 and includes update interpretation panels relating to joint initiatives under the Twinning Agreement between KIB and RBGE, The first International Jade Dragon Seminar on Plant Conservation and Sustainable Development, on the Yulong Xue Shan, near Lijiang, runs from October 19 to October 24. It is supported by the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE), the Scottish Executive (SE), the Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB) and the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (RBGE). The Organising Committee comprises: Stephen Blackmore (RBGE), Li De-Zhu (KIB), David Paterson (RBGE) and Zhang Chang Qin (KIB). The Seminar will be chaired by Sir Anthony Galsworthy, former Ambassador to China.

The seminar will focus on plant conservation and habitat restoration, with special attention to alpine plants of Southwest China. The topics to be covered include:

 the stabilisation and restoration of threatened plant species and habitats,

 the repatriation of living plant collections from ex-situ collections held outside the country of origin,

 the reintroduction of ex situ plant collections into natural and semi-natural habitats,

 the role of local people and indigenous traditional knowledge and practices in plant conservation and sustainable use,

 the development of sustainable production systems for medicinal and other useful plants threatened by harvesting from wild populations,

 the role of palaeo-ecological studies and archival information from herbarium collections and photographic and written archives in guiding habitat restoration,

 the role of botanic gardens in communicating the need for and importance of plant conservation to local people and the opportunities for engaging local people directly in programmes of plant conservation and sustainable use.

Lijiang Field Station & Botanic Garden was declared the UK’s first joint scientific laboratory in China, by First Minister Jack McConnell, in October 2004.

To put the importance of the mountain in context: Scotland plays host to 800 flowering plant species, the Yulong supports some 3,000 species. As a whole, China has around 30,000 plants species – one-eighth of the world’s total. Today, there are tremendous challenges in avoiding habitat destruction, describing new species and raising public awareness of issues which are of fundamental importance to the way we live. New plants are still being discovered and others may be wiped out before they are identified.

The Lijiang project is typical of the work being conducted by RBGE specialists in more than 40 countries around the globe. Outside China, RBGE holds the largest living collection of Sino-Himalayan plants in the world.

For further information, interviews or images: Shauna Hay on 0131 248 2900 or Charlotte Zammit 0131 248 1037.