There are over 2,500 botanical gardens, found in nearly every country across the world. They are often perceived as places for recreation alone, but they are very much more than that. They are involved in many structured activities focused in the fields of horticulture, science, education and conservation.
The network of botanical gardens therefore represents an enormous and varied repository of knowledge, expertise and resources. These resources are particularly relevant to conservation, ethnobotany and our modern uses of plants. For example, botanical gardens are estimated to keep at least 100,000 species as living plants, and to maintain 250,000 seed bank accessions. Many of these species are, or are related to, economically important species.
Botanical gardens' activities have always reflected the needs and values of societies and even our oldest gardens owe their origins to the relationship of people and plants. The first recognisable botanical gardens were established as teaching and research facilities for physicians in medieval Europe. When European countries began to build empires in the 18th and 19th centuries, botanical gardens were set up in the new colonies to serve the needs of the empire.
These gardens were used to study local plants, and used multinational connections to introduce and develop useful plants from other regions, and so have been instrumental in the establishment of cash crops and agricultural industries that still dominate these countries. For example, the Royal Botanic Garden, Calcutta first tested and introduced tea to India and other gardens played key roles in the introduction of tea, coffee, Cinchona and timber crops. Botanical gardens also reflected a fascination with documenting and sorting the expanding collections of plant species being discovered, and began to play a key role in plant taxonomy research.
After two world wars and the dissolution of empires, the diversity of purposes and activities expanded to reflect the rapidly changing societies: in the Soviet Union gardens were established to develop plant varieties and uses that were of practical benefit to society, whilst some other gardens focused on non-applied research, and others on amenity values.
Today, many gardens are focused on research for conservation and economic botany, for commercial and local benefits. Education on these subjects is also important. When the conservation of biodiversity began to emerge as a concern in the middle of the last century, the resources of botanical gardens were recognised to have valuable potential for ex situ conservation, by acting as genebanks for useful and endangered plants.
As ideas about conservation began to develop beyond the traditional protectionist paradigm, the role of botanic garden resources has adapted, and the IABGC emphasises that botanical gardens are now focused on sustainability and the modern conservation agenda.
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1. Modern health care and plant based medicines linked to botanical gardens
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