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MAXIMIZE YOUR INSTITUTION'S MEMBERSHIP

How can you help maximize your institution's BGCI membership?

Take advantage of BGCI's diverse resources, networking opportunities, and targeted plant conservation action and policy efforts. Read below for more information.

NEW: BGCI is excited to announce that a new category has been created for the 2009 International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. One of seven categories, ‘World's Botanic Gardens’ is intended to capture the essence of what makes a botanic garden.

We hope you will consider promoting this exciting competition at your institution as a way to share the wonders of botanic gardens here in the United States with the world. BGCI will receive 10% of the revenue raised through the entries in this category, and will be used to support BGCI's work in environmental education in botanic gardens through training, workshops and conferences.


WEB-BASED RESOURCES AND PUBLICATIONS

  1. Make sure your garden's profile on Garden Search is up-to-date; this is a great tool to reach visitors worldwide and allows BGCI to maintain vital statistics about the collective impact of botanic gardens worldwide.  If you don't have time to update the pages yourself, just email or mail Andrea Kramer in our U.S. office any material (Annual Reports, newsletters, brochures, etc.) that you have which will allow us to fill out your profile for you. 
  2. Include a link to BGCI's website and post this LOGO on your institution's website to let visitors know about your commitment to conservation.
  3. Make sure your garden's contributions to Plant Search are complete and up-to-date. Click here for more information on this powerful conservation tool.
  4. Use and post your institution's information to BGCI's Jobs and Opportunities Noticeboard.
  5. Check out the key resources BGCI has pulled together on starting, managing, funding, and promoting botanic gardens.
  6. Check out the reports BGCI has published on key topics relevant to botanic gardens (human well-being, medicinal plants, education for sustainable development, and Plants and climate change).
  7. Access information relevant to botanic gardens on key policy issues, including the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation, CITES and the Convention on Biological Diversity.
  8. Read and contribute to BGCI publications. All members of our global network receive our print publications (Roots, BG Journal, and Cuttings), and members and non-members alike can subscribe to BGCI's electronic publications (Cultivate and EUpdate).

GLOBAL PLANT CONSERVATION ACTION INITIATIVES
Medicinal plants
BGCI published Plants for life: Medicinal plant conservation and botanic gardens in January 2008, highlighting threatened medicinal plant species and what botanic gardens can and are doing to conserve them. Following this report, BGCI has launched a project to gather information on the 428 taxa identified as being of conservation concern. Here's how your institution can contribute:

  1. BGCI is using its Plant Search database to identify which medicinal plants of concern are being maintained by botanic gardens around the world. Make your collections count in this assessment by uploading your plant collections records to Plant Search. (Click here for more information about Plant Search.)
  2. Is your institution growing any of the 35 most threatened medicinal plants identified in the Plants for life report? If any of these species are among the records your institution has uploaded to Plant Search, BGCI will be contacting you in the coming months about a new project to document cultivation methods and best practice techniques for each of these 35 medicinal plant species. This information will ultimately be available through BGCI's website as a key resource for medicinal plant conservation efforts around the world.
  3. Is your institution growing any of these 20 medicinal plants of concern? BGCI currently has NO RECORD OF BOTANIC GARDEN CULTIVATION for these species, so please check out this list and let us know if your institution is growing or has grown any of these species.

Plants and Climate Change
BGCI has been actively involved in work to address the impacts of climate change on plants, and we have documented our efforts and those of our members on our website (the effects of climate change on plants.), in a recent issue of BGjournal, and an upcoming issue of Roots. In 2008, this work reaches a new level with the release of BGCI's latest report Plants and climate change: which future? (PDF 3.4MB), which was presented at the meeting of the Conference to the Parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity in Bonn, Germany. Look for more information on how your institution can benefit from and be involved in this initiative in the coming months.

GLOBAL PLANT CONSERVATION POLICY INITIATIVES
BGCI played a pivotal role in the development and implementation of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC); and is committed to continuing to highlight the key role botanic gardens play in delivering this Strategy. We are working hard to ensure the GSPC is viewed as a major success in 2010 (the deadline for meeting its ambitious targets), but we can only do it with your help. Botanic gardens of every shape and size contribute to the GSPC in a myriad of ways, from public awareness and education programs to efforts to understand plant diversity and carry out plant conservation.

In the United States, we worked with many partners to develop the North American Botanic Garden Strategy for Plant Conservation, and gardens throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico are using it to help guide their conservation actions.  We want to hear about the work you are doing to measure progress towards the Strategy and so we can share your success stories with gardens around the world, so please take time to fill out this questionnaire. 


NETWORKING AND TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

  1. Consider attending and presenting at one of BGCI's global congresses. Our last global congress in Wuhan, China, drew nearly 1000 participants from 67 countries. NEW! The website for BGCI's 7th International Congress on Education in Botanic Gardens, is now live at www.ebg2009.org.za. Hosted by Durban Botanic Garden, this exciting congress is set for November 2009 in Durban, South Africa.
  2. Take advantage of BGCI's training opportunities. Our International Diploma Course in Botanic Garden Education, is offered in partnership with Kew.  Held every 2 years, this course teaches botanic garden staff to effectively design, implement, and grow conservation-focused education programs at their botanic garden. We anticipate that the next course will be held in fall 2010.