This month, NTBG received accreditation from Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) as an Advanced Conservation Practitioner carrying out globally significant conservation activities.
“At a time when our daily news feeds are filled with darkness, it is a delight to share this bright spot for NTBG,” said Janet Mayfield, NTBG CEO and Director. “We are so proud to receive this recognition for our work saving some of the world’s rarest plants and join a select global group of only 15 botanical gardens to date,” she continued.
The BGCI Advanced Conservation Practitioner Accreditation is the highest level of accreditation obtainable and recognizes excellence and international leadership in plant conservation policy, practice, and education. In addition to the application, and a conservation collections assessment carried out by BGCI and an anonymous external peer review, NTBG had to provide documented evidence of:
The collections assessment confirmed that National Tropical Botanical Garden holds 3,538 taxa in its overall collection, with 3,445 taxa in the living collection and 842 taxa in the seed bank. From the overall collection 683 taxa are unique in ex situ collections worldwide (636 unique in the living collection and 47 unique in the seed bank), and 1,765 taxa that are present in five or fewer ex situ collections globally (1,677 in the living collections and 618 in the seed bank).
Further, NTBG’s collection includes 628 taxa that are globally threatened according to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species (595 in the living collection and 324 in the seed bank). Of these 628 taxa, 44 taxa are uniquely conserved at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (27 in the living collection and 17 in the seed bank) and 359 taxa are held in five or fewer ex situ collections worldwide (327 in the living collection and 268 in the seed bank).
Lastly, the percentage of threatened taxa in the collections of The National Tropical Botanical Garden is above average when compared with other accredited gardens. Of the 1,215 taxa that are threatened at some level (nationally, regionally or globally) according to assessments stored in the BGCI database, 67 taxa are uniquely conserved at the National Tropical Botanical Garden (41 in the living collection and 26 in the seed bank) and 574 taxa are held in five or fewer ex situ collections worldwide (523 in the living collection and 410 in the seed bank).
“This recognition really highlights the excellent curatorial standards of our living collections, the value of our collections and the importance of conservation work carried out by botanical institutions like NTBG,” said Nina Rønsted, NTBG Director of Science and Conservation
You can learn more about plant science and conservation from National Tropical Botanical Garden in a variety of ways. Review our science and conservation web pages or join us for a garden tour at one of our locations on Kauai, Maui, or in Miami, FL.
NTBG also holds the highest level IV of accreditation from The ArbNet Arboretum Accreditation Program, which recognizes international industry standards for arboreta