Australasian Botanic Gardens 2019 Congress

Welcome to the BGANZ 2019 Congress, Wellington New Zealand

BGANZ 2019 WAS A GREAT SUCCESS

Plants have brought Australasian Botanic Gardens together though BGANZ every 2 years since 2003.

They have canvassed a range of roles and perceived roles for botanic gardens.

They have been about education, conservation, their roles in communities and any number of shades of these themes.

2019 returns to basics - it is all about the plants. Science, education, recreation, conservation, community outreach - they are all dependent on plants

Botanic gardens were established to gather plants for economic purposes, for medicinal purposes then alongside private collectors for the joy and privilege that plants can bring.

As we have become increasingly urbanised 55% of the world's population now lives in cities people, have increasingly lost touch with plants as the staple of life. Where they come from, their myriad of benefits to people, their contribution to the liveability of our cities.

This has come at great cost to many communities around the world, where their traditional crops have been acquired, their lands devastated for the growing of crops, their intellectual property taken from them and alongside this the degradation of the worlds natural and farmed landscapes. Now three-quarters of the worlds terrestrial masses are dedicated to the production of plants lead to meet the demands of people’s consumption. We know a lot about individual plants, we know a lot about plant communities and their attendant biodiversity but we know little of loss caused by even one plant species going extinct.

Botanic gardens have a critical role now and in the future. They are the resources and the leaders in the protection of plants, in advocating for plants and for making visible the plant services which we depend on.

In the face of climate change, Botanic Gardens have a key role in fostering plant communities, to understand the adaptations need and to ring the warning bells of climate change ever more loudly. Plant species some of whose services to us are unknown, unrealised or unimagined may be lost unless Botanic Gardens continue to take and escalate their leading roles through resources they have. To advocate for our plants and landscapes, make the connection between wheat and Weetbix, pines and paper, their role in providing us with clean water, for the love of plants for our health and wellbeing , for future generations and for the welfare of our planet.

David Sole, Wellington Botanic Garden
14th June 2018