Useful Education Resources

There is a huge range of materials and resources avaliable for those working in the environmental education and education for sustainability fields.

We have selected (and created) resources of particular interest to educators in botanic gardens; use the links below to explore. If there are any glaring gaps or recent developments that we should add, please let us know.

BGCI Resources for Educators

Environmental Education in Botanic Gardens: Guidelines for individual strategies

Education for Sustainable Development: Guidelines for Action in Botanic Gardens

Roots - the Botanic Garden Education Review

Other key readings for botanic garden educators

Communicating Climate Change - in English, French, and Spanish

Results of member's survey on BGCI's resources

Website links for botanic gardens educators

A quick link page for environmental education journals, education programes, environmental education groups and education resource suppliers.

Education in Botanic Gardens: How-to Guides

Developing an education programme in your own garden? Whether you are starting from scratch, or building on a exisiting programme, have a look at our 'How-to' guides for easy-to-use frameworks and guidelines. Whether you are creating an exhibition, a self-guided trail, or even an education master plan, you will find ideas, case studies and suggestions here.

Reports from training workshops, conferences and meetings

BGCI's education department often attends training courses, workshops, conferences and meetings of relevance to the botanic garden education world. This section contains reports and write-ups from these events, with associated links and information.

Resource Reviews

The place for reviews of new resources for botanic garden educators - we are also looking for reviews from educators using resources in the field. If there is a book, a supplier, a website, that you use all the time, we want to know about it!

Education E-update

BGCI has launched the Education E-update, a handy bite-sized review of the latest in botanic garden education from around the world, fresh to your inbox every month. Each month’s issue will include news updates from BGCI and botanic gardens around the world; links to education resources and materials you can use in your programmes; profiles of plant-based conservation educators and programmes; and ideas and feedback from our readers.

To make sure a copy gets to your inbox, sign up to Education e-update. Or, use the archive to find the latest and previous issues.

Resources from Roots

Roots, the education review for botanic garden educators, contains a trilingual resources section every issue. Have a look at the resources and websites reviewed in Roots.

Have you used any of the resources suggested? If so, what did you think about them? Send us your comments and thoughts.

Links: Education in Botanic Gardens

We've compiled these links to online educational resources relating to plants, conservation, and site-based activities.

Education for Sustainable Development – Guidelines for Action in Botanic Gardens

BGCI has published Guidelines on Education for Sustainable Development. Suitable for those working in botanic gardens and other site-based education centres, it features tips and case studies from botanic gardens around the world. The Guidelines are freely available to all in PDF and printed format.

BGCI and RBG Kew offer an international diploma course in education for botanic garden staff. Participants will learn education skills and strategies to get their message across effectively to varied audiences. The emphasis is on interactive learning.

Setting Up and Running a School Garden

This publication, available in full online or in print from the FAO, is based on the idea that childhood habits die hard. The manual is to assist teachers, parents and communities, drawing on classroom experiences from across the world. The guide explains how to run and set up a garden in a school.

Education for Sustainable Development

Develop the necessary knowledge and skills required in order to teach on the subject of sustainable development. BGCI earns credit for your purchases on Amazon.

Target 14: Communicating the Importance of Plant Diversity

This PDF leaflet is for raising awareness about Target 14 of the GSPC. A crucial element of conservation is educating the public and communicating the importance of plants. The leaflet is free to download and print yourself, or you can contact BGCI to discuss distribution of large batches.

Have your say! BGCI Membership Questionnaire 2008

BGCI is striving to improve the services that we provide to our members. We need your help in order to do this. Please take 5 minutes to submit our Membership Questionnaire.