Flower Power

Global EARTH HOUR March 29th- Turn off your lights!

2008-02-04T10:29:00.000Z

About a year ago, Sydney started a trend of turning off your lights for one hour in a show of support for protecting our environment. Soon after, London, San Francisco quickly followed suit. One year later, the organizers of Sydney’s Earth Hour feel that one city at a time doesn’t really cut it anymore. Which is why this year’s event is going global, with cities from every continent, including the US, participating in what promises to be the largest ever show of solidarity in the world on March 29th for Earth Hour.

education research resources

2008-01-15T16:14:00.000Z

Another couple of resources, but this time focused on research of environmental education.

Action research - improving learning through the environment is a "compilation of ideas for carrying out action research in order to improve learning through educational work in the environment".

Produced by the National Association of Field Studies Officers (NAFSO), it includes chapters on different methods of evaluation, such as letters and concept maps, evaluating fieldwork, residential courses and community-based environmental education.

It is available through the NAFSO website

ISBN: 1 901 642 10 00

Edited by: Adrian Clark, Helen Parry, Clare Shorter

Proceedings of the VIIIth Conference on Environmental Education in Europe 'Learning for a sustainable future: the role of communication, ethics and social learning in environmental education'

Editor: Mark Alderweireldt

CEEE Ghent, 2002

Although 5 years old now, this set of proceedings includes useful papers on EfS, focusing in Europe, with case studies and research. For more information about the CEEE conferences and the organising group, the European Foundation for Education and Sustainable Development, have a look at their website.

hasta luego from sarah k

2008-01-15T12:56:00.000Z

Well, after four years of working for BGCI, it is time I was off. It is my last day in the office today, clearing my desk, sorting out my files and generally trying to create a semblance of order instead of the chaos that has ruled my workspace.

I am leaving to take up a post developing the education department of a new botanic garden in Oman, I shall be moving out there in February and will be based there for between 1 - 5 years. The garden does not physically exist at the moment, it is still early stages, but is due to open some time in 2010. Keep your eyes on the BGCI news pages for the latest.

I shall be keeping in touch as much as possible, there is much I need to learn from colleagues about the practical aspects of BG education. Please do stay in contact, and I hope to see everyone at the next BGCI conferences! Until then, all the best, and I leave you in Julia's tender care.

Xxx

The Greatest Race on Earth - environmental pledges

2008-01-14T10:56:00.000Z

Just a quick snippet - standard chartered bank have funded a website with a handy personal carbon calculator, complete with country-specific suggestions for improvements and comparison with the average individual carbon emissions. There is also a good series of animations, leading you through different aspects of living, work, transport, home and leisure with ideas and how to reduce your environmental impact. Very attractive and easy to use. Have a look at the Race for a Living Planet site. You can also pledge to make environmental improvements, and see what other people in other countries are pledging.

Mini Madagascar and plants in the zoo

2008-01-13T12:16:00.000Z

A little while ago I received a package from Roger Graf, the head of education at Zurich Zoo. He had read the issue of Roots on Botanic Gardens and Zoos (Roots 1:2 Botanic gardens and zoos; synergies for the future) and was interested in the role that zoos and zoo educators can, and do, play for plant conservation. He sent me the very attractive and interesting guidebook to their new Masoala Rainforest exhibition, a partnership project between Zurich Zoo and the Parc National Masoala in Madagascar, a real hotspot for biodiversity.

The guidebook is extremely attractive, with fold out maps of the exhibition and the area of Madagascar it is based on, information about the national park, rainforests and the conservation issues facing the country, plus details on the development of the new exhibition. The main body of the guide is on the plants of the rainforest - illustrated within the exhibition. Each species has a lovely illustration, description including physiological, evolutionary, historical and ethnobotanical information and portrait including range, relatives and economic utility. There are numerous colour photos throughout, with text boxes describing recipes and cultural details to bring the rainforest to life.

Further sections describe the animal exhibits within the mini Masoala Rainforest and outline what can be done to help conserve the rainforest.

The book is a lovely example of how a guidebook can be extended, to provide so much more than information about a given exhibition, but become an introduction to an ecosystem, its importance and threats and the organisms within it. More information about Zurich's Masoala Rainforest can be found on their website and the guidebook can be ordered through their online shop.

PlantsCafe - open for business!

2008-01-12T16:37:00.000Z

A fantastic new resource, desgiend specifically for botanic garden educators, has been launched on-line. The PlantsCafe is part of the european Union funded Plant Scientists Investigate project. Four botnaic gardens, Natural Sceince museum garden in Trento, Italy, the University of Sofia botanic agrden in Bulgaria, Unvieristy of Innsbruck Botanic Garden in Austra and the royal Botanic garden in Kew have been workgn iwth teh Institue of Education in London to produce materisl to encourage teachersto ork with plants and brign their pupisl to botanic gardens.

Each fo the sites has produed a set of materials to use toexplore one of the four themes of the plant learngin curriculum produced

- experiments about plant growht

- plants as food

- plants and art

- conservation of plants

Each theme have up to 12 activiites, soem for useint eh classroom and some for use in teh garden, to explore the subject. The activities are descirbed in detail in free to download PDFs

Encyclopedia of Life coming to life

2008-01-08T11:19:00.000Z

Suzanne Sharrock, BGCI's director of global programmes, went to an interesting meeting last week in Washington, US. BGCI is a member of the institutional council of a new, very ambitious, project called the Encyclopedia of Life. They are aiming, in association with a huge number of museums, experts, databases etc (including Wikipedia) to create a comprehensive database of every species on the face of the planet.

They say "the Encyclopedia will serve as an online reference source and database for every one of the 1.8 million species that are named and known on this planet, as well as all those later discovered and described. Encyclopedia of Life will be used as both a teaching and a learning tool, helping scientists, educators, students, and the community at large gain a better understanding of this planet and all who inhabit it."

They estimate that the initial sections (I think they are starting with fish) will be available in 2008, and the whole thing will be ready in ten years. It looks like an awesome project - they have a good Q and A section if, like me, you are wondering how on earth they are going to get so many groups to share their carefully gathered and hoarded data for no money. There are also some demonstration pages - I like the way you can select what level of user you are, i.e. novice to expert. They are planning to include a huge amount of data - it sounds really exciting and was inspired by the king of biodiversity, EO Wilson.

Do have a look at the video they have produced -it is really good.

Before waxing too lyrical about it, I do wonder about a couple of points...

- why is so much money being invested in a database when the species being listed are disappearing at such a fast rate?

- would the money have been put to better use carrying out conservation on the ground in some of the most biodiverse regions of the world?

- is yet another database of diversity(e.g. Wikispecies, Species2000) needed?

It would be very interesting to hear your views on this - have a look at it and let us know what you think.....

Happy new year - got any resolutions? If not, this video could help!

2008-01-02T13:25:00.001Z

Happy New Year and welcome back!

So, have you made any resolutions? Apart from usual (more exercise, less chocolate), I am trying to reduce my consumption. I started with some of the xmas pressies I bought ('experiences' like a trip to the cinema or going for afternoon tea, rather than manufactured goods, or alternative gifts such as mosquito nets or fluffy ducks through various developing country NGOs), but want to continue my 'dematerialisation' into the new year.

This is mostly inspired by Annie Leonard's 'Story of Stuff', a great video which explains, from a US perspective, some of the economic basis for environmental issues and the importance of the drive we all need to create towards sustainability. The video is 20 minutes, but packs a lot in, explaining the linear 'extraction - production - consumption -disposal' lifespan of our material goods. Some of the language is complex, but all the key terms are explained, and there is a comprehensive list of references included. The use of animated graphics really helps to bring the statistics to life and illustrate the problems.

The accompanying blog and comments are also very interesting, do check it out and share it with people - she is making some good points about the key issues and barriers to global conservation.

Quick couple of ideas and resources

2007-12-20T15:03:00.000Z

We are lucky in that we receive all sorts of interesting resources and materials through the post from our members and colleagues in education sites around the world. A couple that have been sent through this season are...

The Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanic Garden in Istanbul, Turkey have been really busy with their education programmes and provision. They have a super colourful new leaflet about he activities on offer and a fabulous activity book for their younger visitors

Qui a sauve Beni le petit bonobo? - a beautifully illustrated children's book telling the story of the capture and rescue of Beni, a bonobo chimpanzee whose mother is a victim of the bushmeat trade in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Produced to support the ape sanctuary, Lola ya Bonobo (paradise for bonobos in Lingala, the language of Kinshasa) and funded by Awely, an international organisation working to reduce human-animal conflicts in South America, Asia and Africa. The book has also had support from Appenheul Zoo and WAZA.

ISBN 978-2-9528827-0-5

Chicago Botanic Garden's Autumn Bingo is a nice example of a simply-designed, bilingual, fun activity sheet for children visiting the garden. There are stickers attached to the back of each sheet for children to stick on the squares when they find the subjects.

Merry Christmas everyone!

2007-12-20T14:52:00.001Z

The festive season is well and truly upon us in the UK, it is freezing cold, we are plunged into darkness at 15.30 and I am really full from eating too many left overs from the BGCI Christmas party!

Julia and I are both off on our holidays over Christmas, but will be back in the New Year, no doubt reinvigorated.

Until then, here is a little piece of festive cheer from us to you - enjoy and season's greetings to all!
Click here for Sarah and Julia just elfin' around

Active in Italy

2007-12-20T14:40:00.000Z

Annastella Gambini from the University of Milan visited BGCI last week. She is an amazingly enthusiastic professor of botany at the university and runs the botanic garden there. It as great to hear everything they have been up to. Recently Annastella has been developing a garden for the school within the university, that children of university staff attend. Focusing on senses, the plantings in the garden illustrate the ways plants change throughout the year and are designs to demonstrate adaptation and intra-species diversity.

Anastella also told us about a fantastic project, working with a chain of supermarkets to set up laboratories for plant investigation work within the supermarket. The idea being to learn and understand about plants, particularly the plants that feed us. Currently these labs are used by primary schools, whose teachers receive a guide on how to use the lab, and run by an educator, trained by Annastella and paid for by the supermarket. The hope is that the programme will expand so that the lab becomes a space where all children coming to the supermarket can go to whilst their parents are shopping, to learn about seeds and plants.

In May 2007, Milan held its first biodiversity festival, in a park near the university. Annastella set up a seminar on teaching about biodiversity attended by trainee teachers, with speakers including Sarah Lloyd from University of Oxford Botanic Garden and Sue Johnson from the Institute of Education in the UK. They are hoping to run the festival again next year and encourage the city's supermarkets to get involved by hosting stalls to demonstrate the biodiversity of food crops.

In her role as a lecturer for trainee teachers, Annastella also works on a series of on-line resources for students who are studying using distance learning to gain their teaching qualification. The support for these students includes videos, photos and materials to help in their lesson planning and preparation. This 3 month course is run four times a year by the university to encourage best practice, even if students are unable to go to university.

Other resources in the pipeline include materials for introducing biodiversity concepts to kindergarten pupils using potatoes and the construction of four new greenhouses to develop their education programme. For more information, contact Annastella annastella.gambini@unimib.it

As ever, any news you may have on your developments is more than welcome! Drop us a line!

Teens for planet earth

2007-12-13T10:15:00.000Z

Teens for Planet Earth is a programme run by the Wildlife Conservation Society in the US. They run the Bronx Zoo, Prospect Park Zoo and New York Aquarium in New York and have extensive in situ and ex situ conservation programmes. A few years ago it was realised that girls were not taking science as an option at high school. WCS decided to address this through developing 'Girls for Planet Earth'. girls would come to a conference-type, 2 week workshop with WCS staff and learn how to develop, run and manage their own in situ conservation project within their own community.

Girls for Planet Earth has since been expanded into Teens for Planet Earth and has gone global. The website about the programme is focused at the participants, but includes case studies of the kind of work the students have been doing to improve their local environment and conservation in their regions and a series of web pages to lead teenagers through the process to start their own project. Most recently teams in Bangladesh have been getting involved, outlines of their work are also on the TFPE website.

Climate Change on the Living Earth

2007-12-12T17:09:00.000Z

Professor James Lovelock introduced us to the Gaia hypothesis back in the 1960s, where he postulated that the Earth functions as a kind of superorganism. Almost 50 years on, this extraordinary octogenarian is still making waves - and big ones at that! A thought provoking and terrifying lecture he gave to the Royal Society in October has recently been posted on the Society's website.

Professor Lovelock claims that the International Panel on Climate Change has considerably underestimated the rate at which Climate Change is taking place and talks about the devastating impact it will have on natural systems. He takes an apocalyptic view of the future seeing up to eight billions of humans faced with ever diminishing supplies of food and water in an increasingly intolerable climate. As you can imagine, most people left the lecture dumb struck!

Nevertheless, I believe we can't and musn't give up! Even if there's is nothing we can do to stop the earth warming because of the carbon already deposited (and continuing to be deposited) into the atmosphere, we still need to adapt our lifestyles to be more in tune with the earth. This of course requires a fundamental shift in the way we think about and relate to the planet - we have to see ourselves as part of it, not separate to it - which brings us back to Gaia.

Parallel universes, awards and acting like wolves

2007-12-10T11:30:00.000Z

I was at the British and Irish Aquarium and Zoo Association (BIAZA) annual communication and education conference last week. I'm one of the external judges for their education wards - they have categories for formal and general public education. I think the awards are a great idea, they help to promote and share best practice among educators, raise the profile of education within a site and acknowledge the hard work that education departments put into their programmes. Plus of course, winning wards is always great for media interest and for funders to see. Details of the 2005 and 2006 winners are on the BIAZA website.

Other than the award ceremony, there was also four days packed with site visits and paper presentations. Of particular interest were some marketing presentations about using the Internet and creating profiles for sites online - making the most of the Internet as a space to create presence for your organisation. Any institution can make a facebook profile, a myspace page, upload videos onto youtube and of course write blogs!

The Living Rainforest director, Karl Hansen, presented on their plans to develop the world's first carbon neutral glasshouse - a very exciting scheme, and one which fits in very well with the need to improve the sustainability of botanic garden sites. They are looking for corporate partners to raise the final portion of funding to ensure the project goes ahead. Details are on the website.

We also took part in a fantastic 'Speaking Wolf' workshop, by education award winner Wildwood, and heard all about an evaluation programme that Dutch zoos have been taking part in. I spoke about the award scheme and some of the best submissions, along with how to develop a good submission for the 2008 awards.

It would be very interesting to hear how you feel about the idea of awards - do you think botanic garden education staff would be interested in submitting their programmes for consideration if BGCI set up an awards programme? Let us know!

Eden up for some serious money

2007-12-07T17:01:00.000Z

BG educators in the Uk are being badgered today to participate in a public vote on how to spend £50 million. This money is from the UK's national Lottery and for the first time the lottery are using television programme and a public vote to decide how to spend this pot of money. There are four projects in the competition, including the Eden Project's plans for the 'Edge'. This would be their third 'biome' and is intended to illustrate people and plants 'on the edge'

Eden are describing the project as:
The Edge will be a landmark new building at the Eden Project.
Its scale and ambition will make the Edge an international icon of sustainability, showing mankind is capable of amazing things. The building will be a model of cutting-edge architecture and technology, harvesting water and energy from the sun, wind, and rain to show how we all might live in the future. It will be a testament to one-planet living, built to the lowest possible carbon footprint and designed to last.
Inside… …there will be desert, oasis and water gardens on a scale never attempted. Underneath… …a series of interlocking underground chambers will provide spaces for some of the great voices of the age – artists, writers, scientists and musicians - to work with communities and families and share the best ideas they have for improving their lives and environments, now and in the future.

The other projects also sound interesting (have a look at the 50 million pound giveaway website to see), but this is a great opportunity for a member of the botanic garden community to increase their capacity for conservation education and sustainable development...we've got our fingers crossed!

UK educators explore the GSPC for themselves

2007-12-05T12:58:00.000Z

Julia and I were enjoying the autumn sunshine at the annual Botanic Garden Education Network conference last month, along with 63 others from 24 organisations. It was a super conference, always good fun to catch up with the members, but most importantly the focus was on the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation. The keynote speeches were excellent, started off by Peter Wyse Jackson's summary of the how, what, why, where and when of the GSPC, then followed with presentations on each of the five objectives of the GSPC:

Objective 1 of GSPC – Understanding and Documenting Plant Diversity, Trevor Dines, Plantlife

Objective 2 of GSPC – Facilitating harmony, identifying gaps and promoting mobilisation of resources for plant conservation Chris Cheffings, Joint Nature Conservation Committee.

Objective 3 of GSPC – the ecosystem approach to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity Monique Simmonds, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Objective 4 – Piloting targets, developing and implementing the thematic programmes of work of the Convention Jayne Manley, Plantlife.

Objective 5 – Building capacity for plant conservation. How are we doing?Deborah Long, Plantlife.

Each presentation provided a very clear summary of what was happening in the UK with the targets of the GSPC, who was doing what, what had been achieved, what was left to do up to and beyond 2010 and what the challenges are. I found it really helpful to gain an understanding of how different organisations and institutions are contributing to the GSPC. It makes it much more tangible when particular actions are gradually achieving the strategy's targets.

I think part of the intangibility of the GSPC for me is that Target 14 lands firmly at the feet of the educators, is huge and cross-cutting for all the other targets as well. We may not ever know if we can or if we have achieved the target, as it is so difficult to measure. However, the workshops at the BGEN conference provided some great ideas of how we can contribute to the other targets through education and communication provision.

One great example was a workshop on alien invasive species by Plantlife International. Did you know that invasives are the second biggest threat to UK biodiversity and the main source of invasives are gardens? Education therefore has vital role to play in convincing anyone who has or uses a garden that there is a problem and they can help. Plantlife have developed a programme on aquatic invasives and have loads of information on their website about invasives in the UK.

Julia and I also ran a workshop on Target 14 - we wanted to get BGEN members talking about how BGEN can take T14 forward in the UK. We had some great suggestions and ideas. we are still putting the report together, but will post it up on the blog when we have pulled out the main action points. Other workshops covered topics such as teaching about food security, native flora, sustainable procurement and organic gardening. The workshop descriptions and the congress papers are all on the BGEN website, do have a look to see what was discussed.

I really think that this format of conference worked very well to get the network member on board with the GSPC - and would suggest it as a good topic for any network meeting to encourage participation with achieving the GSPC.

There is more on BGEN on the website.

RBG Canada Video

2007-12-03T10:52:00.000Z

The Royal Botanical Gardens Canada have put up a video about their work.

interpretation resource

2007-11-30T11:17:00.000Z

A friend of mine, Kerry Waylen, who produced the well-being and botanic gardens report last year for BGCI, sent me a useful link via face book the other day. Face book is one of these Internet networking sites, where you have your own profile and can load up pictures and send messages to your friends etc. Anyway, she had come across an interpretation guide, produced in 1999 (but still relevant) by the American Museum of Natural History, designed for educators working in the tropics.

The guide is quite comprehensive, with chapters on exhibits, presenting, community outreach and evaluation. It is available in English, French and Spanish and is free to download, which is handy, and covers all the basics for developing interpretive programmes. Do have a look and let us know what you think by leaving some comments.

Taking teachers to the amazon

2007-11-06T12:53:00.000Z

The other week, we had a delightful guest visit BGCI. Phil Williams, a TV producer-turned environmentalist and educator extrordinaire, popped in to say hello. He runs an organisation called Plan-it Eco, presenting talks and runing school conferences about the inspirational world of the rainforest.

But he doesnt stop there - why talk about it when you can show people, after all? So, he also takes groups of teachers and occasionally school pupils to Ecuador to explore and experience the awe and wonder of the rainforest for themselves.

So far he has taken five school groups to the Amazon; students have an amazing trip, spending time in Quito, visiting the markets and museums, then off to the rainforest, with a canoe trip to a boarding school for indigenous children. These children spend 26 days at school and 26 days at home, as they have a long way to travel. Their school allows them to gain an introduction to and understanding of the outside world and uses its own currciulum designed to maximise the welfare of the idigenous people. The UK students work alongside the pupils on their school vegetable plots and other activities. This is followed by a three day trip to volcanoes, complete with a stay on a llama farm. Phil is taking ten primary school children to the Amazon in 2009, with a possiblity of being part of a televsion programme and is working with a few schools to develop this idea.

Phils has also taken eight groups of teachers out to Ecuador to inspire and encourage them to teach about education for sustainable development and conservation. "The trips can have amazing outcomes -one participant raised £16,000 to help the villiage and school we visited to gain an electricty supply" Phil said. To ensure that the impact of the trip is maintained, teachers produce a diary throughout their travels - with one teacher writing it per day. This is published on the return home, so that everyone receives a copy and a disc is made of all the photographs taken. This creates the perfect teaching aid for bringing the Amazon to life back in the classroom.

Phil does not just whisk peoepl around the world though, he works closely with schools on a range of activities, such as environmental assessments of schools - identifying points for increased efficiency. He reckons that these changes can save a school anywhere between £5,000 - £15,000. Phil gives talks to students on many curriculum areas and trains teachers in using education for sustainable development. Local authorities have been booking him to run student conferences investigating the global impacts of local desicisons, to encourage students to see how their choices have a far-reaching effect.

For more information, contact Phil on p_eco@tiscali.co.uk.

Hard Rain - tough issues, clear choices

2007-11-06T12:44:00.000Z

One of the many roles of the BGCI website is as a shop front - we advertise books, resources and journals which our members may find interesting or useful. One which has had the most response is the visual and poetic feast, Hard Rain. The book uses Bob Dylan's lyrics with photographs illustrating some of the worlds major issues - pollution, climate change, poverty and human rights. An outdoor exhibition has been put together by the book's authors which has been touring botanic gardens around the world - for the list and to see what the exhibition looks like, have a look on the Hard Rain website.

Now a new expanded version is being released with four new chapters; No Time for Denial by Jonathon Porritt; Hard Choices by Robert May; Beware the Climate Fixers by John Elkington and Geoff Lye and Changing Consciousness by David Bohm as well as a new photo essay by Mark Edwards with over 50 new photographs. Mark is also working on a new banner for the exhibition, provisionally titled, "Remaking a world gone wrong". This banner will emphasize the urgent need for a radically new, worldwide approach to our problems. It will be displayed alongside Hard Rain and will present solutions from around the world that need to be urgently scaled up.". A copy of Hard Rain is being sent to every prime minister and president in the world with a request that they outline their policies regarding the problems illustrated in Hard Rain, and asking that they suggest existing “living solutions” from their country that could be adopted more widely.

For more information about the exhibition, how to contact the team if your garden or site would like to host it and details of the itinerary, see the Hard Rain website. To order the book, use the BGCI bookstore

Big Draw

2007-10-17T16:01:00.000Z

The weather last Saturday was glorious, which was terrific because I spent the day at Kew with family and friends participating in the Big Draw. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this event, it’s a national campaign that aims to get everybody drawing, whether you're three or 93! This year it’s taking place during the month of October with events all over the country. Like many venues, Kew held their Big Draw event on 13 October. If you’re in the UK and want to participate, check out the website for an event near you.

The Big Draw event at Kew tied in superbly with the Henry Moore exhibition they’re currently running. Twenty eight amazing sculptures are sited within Kew’s extraordinary landscape. The day was inspiring, and with so many workshops to choose from it was impossible to go to all of them. As it happened we only managed to get to three! The children really enjoyed the workshop entitled ‘From Nature to Sculpture’. They spent almost an hour looking down the lens of a microscope at tiny seeds and drawing the details on sheets of paper. They then took their recordings outside and made larger pictures using charcoal and these were displayed on a long fence in front of the Orangery, where people were taking lunch and drinking cups of teas and coffee. Incidentally, there was a notable abundance of ladybirds flying around and settling all over the Orangery. There must have been hundreds! It was a spectacular site. I’ve spent time googling about ladybirds but can’t find any answers to why there were so many – if any one’s got an idea, let me know!

Another workshop we participated in, and that was good fun, was ‘Midnight Garden’. The children got to handle some amazing specimens from the Arum family, draw round them on black paper and then cut them out to make a giant frieze. As expected, they chose the largest specimens and then lost heart cutting them out, leaving the parents with aching hands! Nevertheless, they were proud of their contribution and the visual result was terrific as you can see from the pictures. I don’t know how many people came to Kew that day, but certainly visitor numbers were up. The conclusion has to be - art is a fantastic way to engage people in the natural world!

pizza, pasta, ice cream - oh yes and a botanical conference

2007-10-16T12:29:00.000Z

I've just got back from a few days in the delightful town of Palermo in Sicily, where the Italian Botanic Society had their 102nd meeting. There was a good representation by BGCI and BGCI members at the congress - Sara Oldfield (BGCI secretary general) made a rousing speech on the need for botanic gardens to become more involved with dealing with climate change, I talked about the global snapshot of education in botanic gardens and presented a few case studies (RBG Melbourne, RBG Cranbourne, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden and Eden). BGCI had suggested some speakers to the wonderful congress organisers - so Dave Aplin from Meisse, Adil Guner from Nezahat Gokyijit Botanic Garden in Turkey and David Rae from RBG Edinburgh all presented on the latest from their gardens.

David and Dave struck a common chord actually - the need for gardens to really think about what they are doing and where they are going in a clear, objective and focused way. Meisse has been reviving its collection of succulents - and found they need to strip down about 2/3 of thier collection to re-start the succulent conservation programme (see Dave's article on the BGCI website), and also their participation in the indices seminum.

David was talking about the master planning being carried out at RBG Edinburgh, looking at not only the scientific and conservation aspects of the collection but also taking a landscape approach. They have produced clear catalogues of the living collections and a collections policy so that all the plants are adequately described and to ensure that the collection is relevant to the GSPC.

Their presentations really highlighted that gardens need to be constantly reviewing and evaluating their work and ensure that they are indeed working towards clear aims and objectives. I don't think it is any different for education programmes either - have you reviewed your education provision recently? Let us know what you found out and what changes you made.

welcome to our blog

2007-10-16T11:00:00.000Z

Sarah D - the BGCI website guru tells me that the education blog was one of the most popular links from her fabulous newsletter - Cultivate. This means that there must be a whole bunch of new people reading the education blog - welcome! Cultivate also has its own blog now - so you can easily stay updated

The Flower Power blog has been a bit of an experiment, which to be honest Julia and I are still getting to grips with, but it has been great receiving a few comments and suggestions from readers. We really want this to provide an interactive tool - a way that BGCI members and supporters can find out a bit more about what the education department does and most importantly become involved.

So, we want to hear from you! Do send any comments or suggestions in - they can then be published on the blog for other users to read and we can get some good discussions going. What projects are you working on at the moment? have you found any great new resources? What new developments are there in your garden? Let us know and we can share it and discuss it- building a stronger and more effective community for plant conservation.

Oh, and if you subscribe to the blog (use the links on the right), it will send you updates automatically every month, so you don't have to keep checking in case you have missed something!

water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink....

2007-10-16T10:39:00.000Z

....which i think sums up the water problems faced by the planet- even as I type, Planet Ark (the Reuters' environmental news arm) has details of the water problems all over the world - floods in Tunisia, Spain, Haiti and Costa Rica, while continued droughts devastate Australia and threaten the coffee harvest in Brazil.

So, it is appropriate that the next issue of Roots - out at the end of the month, is all about water. Julia and I have been working on it over the past couple of days - proof reading, writing captions, checking and re-checking the text (always a challenge with the sections in French and Spanish). Our designer will stick in our corrections, send it back to us for a final check before it goes off to the printers.

We've got some great articles from all over - Cuba, Australia, USA, Reunion and South Africa, looking at water wise garden design, water education, the role of botanic gardens in malaria prevention and an ingenious scheme for water provision from PlayPumps International. As always, there are a series of resources connected to the topic and we are including a fact sheet containing some key figures about the world's water and sanitation situation, quite an eye-opener.

I'll put up another message when Roots has been mailed out, so you know to expect it. In the meantime, many thanks go to all our contributors and fabulous group of translators who make each issue happen!

Plans for the future

2007-10-03T13:38:00.000Z

As I rushed for my connecting flight in Copenhagen, somehow I knew my luggage wouldn’t make it. Unfortunately, I was right and arrived in Riga at 10.30pm with just my handbag. Thankfully I’d packed my presentation for the next day. I was in Riga at the invitation of the University of Latvia to present about the role of botanic gardens in education and future trends. The University wants to revive its botanic garden and as a first step decided to hold an architectural competition. Five teams of architects from five countries traveled to Riga to participate in a four day workshop. It was a fascinating process.

The first day was the competition brief which involved presentations from a range of stakeholders and two visiting ‘experts’, Leif Schulman, Director of the Helsinki Botanic Garden and me. My job had been made much easier thanks to the input of several colleagues working in botanic gardens who sent me really useful information and images about their education spaces (thanks Michael, Jacky, Jeri, Shawn and Trevor!). During the afternoon we were taken on a tour of Riga city, the largest city in the Baltic States. The city is absolutely beautiful and certainly deserves to be a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Then on to the botanic garden which is situated on the left hand side of the river Daugava, a short bus ride away from the centre. The 15 hectare botanic garden has enormous potential. Its main collections consist of azaleas, rhododendrons, magnolias, dahlias, roses, apricots and peaches and hardy perennials. The displays of flowers were lovely and clearly the population of Riga enjoys visiting the garden.

That evening I found time to interview Anta (Director) and Signe (Deputy Director) of the garden. You can see the video on BGCI's website.

An open forum was held during the second day of the competition for the architectural teams to ask questions of the stakeholders and visiting ‘experts’. I was amazed at how few questions were asked, but as someone pointed out to me the architects probably didn’t want to give away their ideas! The final few days the teams were busy working on their concepts and designs. Unfortunately I had to leave on the Friday evening, so I’m still waiting to hear about the winning designs.

Reflecting on the process, I thought it was fascinating. However, I came away concerned that the vision of the garden was being left in the hands of the architects rather than being articulated by the staff of the garden. Perhaps this will come later, but I feel that if the garden has a strong conservation mission then this will drive the design. For example, I was very interested to find out that the Faculty of Biology at the University is involved in a European project to protect and manage the coastal habitats in Latvia. During the Soviet era (1940-1991) access to the coastline was restricted and, as a consequence, the natural habitats have been inadvertently protected. Reading through the brochure that’s been produced on the project, there's no mention of ex situ conservation. The Botanic Garden, for example, would be an excellent place to carry out ex situ research on some of the plant species. I think it would be marvellous to re-create a dune ecosystem to raise awareness about the importance of this Latvian ecosystem and run education programmes on how the public can help protect it - especially as increasing numbers of the public will be visiting the coast over the years to come.