Horticulture for Critically Endangered Plants

Aims

There are times when species are so critically endangered that habitat management and protection are not enough. The Alliance for Sustainable Horticulture has prepared a draft manual that sets out to provide stand-alone, pragmatic, ‘intensive care’ guidelines for the use of horticulture in conservation of critically endangered plants. It needs your input to get it right.

It sets out to help answer a great many difficult questions:

When should a species receive emergency horticulture?
How much, what and when to collect?
How to maintain the species ex situ?
How to move towards reintroduction?
What to record, report and monitor?
Where to turn for more information?

A number of on-line discussions on particular aspects are already underway, and your input is needed. These and other forums that will open will hopefully stimulate debate and set the agenda for a conference or workshop that could be held later in 2005.

Origin and Development

The draft manual has been written by Mike Read from an idea of Tony Kendle, Director of The Eden Foundation. It has been funded to this stage by the Eden Foundation, but in accord with the ASH policy of openness to information, its development is open to all who can make good use of it. (Click here to view the manual in PDF format).
( requires Acrobat reader - download here )

It is very much in draft form - there is still much work to do - indeed such work is never really complete but continually evolving. But the time is right to ask for opinions and feedback. There is no specific deadline for any comments, but there is no time like the present! Please feel free to note omissions as well as errors! The draft manual is based on the work of many practitioners and theorists; the author's understanding is quite possibly incomplete and he can only ask for your patience and assistance. Particular acknowledgement is due to Ex Situ Plant Conservation – Supporting Species Survival in The Wild, recently published by Island Press (Guerrant E O et al).

What is the manual intended to be?

With the list of critically endangered plant species now in the thousands and growing all too fast, the need for practical solutions becomes ever more acute, often in regions where resources are very limited. The manual is intended to be suitable for local use in all regions. So it must be translatable and useful in situations where resources, facilities and time are limited.

It is envisaged that in due course text will be edited so far as possible to make it jargon-free, easily readable and as brief as possible. Therefore the main body of the text has been kept free from lengthy or complex explanations. Small summary information boxes are used instead, with more details provided when necessary or useful in a set of appendices.

What is it not intended to be?

This work is more or less restricted to horticultural considerations, including genetic concerns, and those issues that have a more or less direct bearing on these issues. Of course as with all matters environmental drawing boundaries is all but impossible! However this is not a propagation manual – there are already countless publications advising on how to sow seed or take cuttings.

Challenge

There is a fundamental tension in this work. On the one hand, all plant species are individuals, so sound knowledge of the biology, genetics and ecology of individual species will always remain highly important. On the other hand, with the roll call of endangered species rising faster than the resources available, the ability to make swift decisions in the absence of full knowledge is becoming increasingly important. It’s unlikely that everyone will be happy with every part of the outcome. Nonetheless the objective of a workable manual for hard-pressed field conservationists is hopefully sufficiently pressing that some kind of consensus can be reached.

Need more information?

Please us.