Biodiversity Conservation

Species conservation status assessments are essential to facilitate monitoring, raise awareness, and prioritise in-situ and ex-situ action to prevent extinctions. Conservation assessments are routinely included in our taxonomic and floristic outputs.

• As chairs of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission (SSC) Conifer Specialist Group, we monitor the status of the world’s more than 700 conifer taxa, 34 per cent of which are threatened with extinction.
• We supply conservation assessments for Sapotaceae to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)/Species Survival Commission (SSC) Global Tree Specialist Group.
• Our Centre for Middle Eastern Plants carries out species and habitat surveys and has, for instance, assessed the conservation status of over 95 per cent of the endemic and regionally important plants of Arabia.
• We were partners in the world’s first genetic risk assessment for wild species, identifying UK high-risk species, and contributing to global biodiversity conservation targets.

We input into local, national and regional conservation planning in some of the most biodiverse areas on earth, including the Arabian Peninsula, Central and South America.

• The Centre for Middle Eastern Plants works closely with national governments and local institutes to identify Important Plant Areas in the Arabian Peninsula, underpinning planning for conservation and sustainable development. In the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Soqotra, Yemen, with support from the British Council Cultural Protection Fund, we document natural and cultural heritage and integrate these into conservation and development planning.
• We work to quantify the exceptionally high levels of endemism in the threatened seasonally dry tropical forests of Central and South America, strengthening the case for their conservation. The DryFlor network brings together biodiversity data from over 50 partners across eight countries, to underpin conservation programmes, and develops protocols for effective conservation monitoring in this unique biome.

Our research cuts across traditionally-defined policy areas to maximise conservation outcomes, for example:

• In China and Southeast Asia, our modelling using high-resolution satellite data – supported by the Players of the People’s Postcode Lottery – provides a deterrent to a major driver of forest destruction – clearance for rubber plantations – by identifying areas where rubber cultivation is neither biologically nor economically sustainable. Working with in-country partners ensures this message reaches local policymakers, land managers and farmers.
• In Scotland we work closely with habitat managers and organisations such as Forestry and Land Scotland and NatureScot to determine present and future site suitability for hundreds of cryptogamic species vital to forest biodiversity. Our evidence-based model of habitat connectivity incorporates future climate trends and potential changes in tree populations due to emerging diseases, helping mitigate climate change impacts on temperate rainforest epiphytes at sites across Scotland.
• As Sector Lead for Horticulture and the Natural Environment in Scotland’s Centre of Expertise in Plant Health, we provide evidence and develop strategies to minimise threats to Scotland’s natural environment, agricultural and horticultural sectors from emerging plant disease.

Our scientific research and conservation horticulture expertise combine to safeguard highly threatened species and through ex-situ collections and translocations.

• In our Gardens we maintain and study populations of over 80% of Scotland’s Target 8 species (exceeding the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation's 75% target), supporting their future conservation and potential reintroduction.
• With funding from the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery, we maintain active translocation programmes for rare and threatened plant species, including montane willows (Salix spp.), alpine-blue sowthistle (Cicerbita alpina), small cow-wheat (Melampyrum sylvaticum) and oblong woodsia (Woodsia ilvensis) Scotland’s globally significant bryophytes and lichens. All our programmes are accompanied by detailed long-term monitoring and stringent plant-health procedures. We share our expertise through national and international guidelines, including the Scottish Code for Conservation Translocations.
• Our network of over 200 ‘safe sites’ spanning the British Isles cultivating a diverse range of genotypes of almost 300 of the world’s conifers, providing insurance against extinction through disease, development or natural disaster. Nine additional ‘conservation hedges’ conserve large numbers of trees in a small space, including native heritage yews and over half of all known genotypes of Critically Endangered Xanthocyparis vietnamensis.

Overseas, we aim always to work in partnership with in-country organisations to co-develop research capacity, with the objective of making ongoing underpinning capacity development by RBGE unnecessary.

• In Tanzania, with support from the UK DEFRA Darwin Initiative, we work with local communities to develop rigorously-evidenced community-based approaches to forest management, enhancing sustainability, equity and gender balance.
• In Tajikistan, we work with Fauna and Flora International, Zam-Zam, Kulob Botanic Garden and Ganji Tabiat, with funding from the Darwin Initiative, to ameliorate threats to plant biodiversity by reducing unsustainable wild harvesting. The project co-creates small-scale agrobiodiversity plots through participatory marketing of selected threatened species, leading to increased and more resilient income, access to locally grown produce, and increased capacity to cultivate produce.
• We co-ordinate the BGCI Global Conservation Consortium for Rhododendron, bringing together the world’s Rhododendron experts, conservationists, and the botanic garden community to ensure that no wild species of Rhododendron becomes extinct.