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A successful community based cactus conservation project has been set up in Queretaro State in Mexico. The project, involving local school children, was set up in response to the identification of five threatened species of cactus in the semi-arid Bellavista del Rio region of Queretaro.

Nothing beats nature for finding drug leads: more than 60% of cancer therapeutics on the market or in testing are natural product based. Yet plant extinctions are occuring at a rate unmatched in geological history - and with them go the symbiotic organisms they host and the animal life they support.

The Chicago Botanic Garden will no longer sell bottled water. As part of its efforts on sustainability and energy conservation it was decided that only Chicago tap water would be served to the Gardens visitors. The change was implemented on June 5th in conjunction with World Environment Day.

No End to the Banana is an exhibition travelling the world that explores the diversity of bananas.

A new £1.6m state-of-the art visitor centre has opened its doors at Dawyck Botanic Garden (Scotland), one of four botanic gardens of the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh.

The 9th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held in Bonn from 19 – 30 May. Over 4,000 participants from 191 countries and a host of governmental and non-governmental organisations, including BGCI of course, were represented.

The Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC) underwent an in-depth review at the 9th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP9) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), held in Bonn, Germany from 19-31 May.

Key education and public programme representatives from capital city botanic gardens around Australia met at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in April 2008 to begin developing a national approach to climate change education.

After 20 years of dreaming and planning the Paul Jovet Botanical Garden in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, France opened its doors to the public for the first time.

The entries are in, the judges have deliberated and the winners have been announced in the inaugural International Garden Photographer of the Year competition. A ceremony on the 22nd of May was held at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, to present the winners and open an exhibition of the works.