What is the Conservation Value of a Plant in a Botanic Garden? Using Indicators to Improve Management of Ex Situ Collections

• DOI: 10.1007/s12229-013-9120-0
• Publication Date: 2013-08-14T18:35:01Z
• Authors: Angelica Cibrian-...; Abby Hird; Nora Oleas; Helen Ma; Alan W. Meerow; Javier Francisco-...; M. Patrick Griffith
• Keywords: Accession; Ex situ conservation; Value (mathematics); Botanical garden; Resource Management

Living botanic garden plant collections are a fundamental and underutilized worldwide resource for plant conservation. A common goal in managing a botanical living collection is to maintain the greatest biodiversity at the greatest economic and logistic efficiency. However to date there is no unified strategy for managing living plants within and among botanic gardens. We propose a strategy that combines three indicators of the management priority of a collection: information on species imperilment, genetic representation, and the operational costs associated to maintaining genetic representation. In combination or alone, these indicators can be used to assay effectiveness and efficiency of living collections, and to assign a numeric conservation value to an accession. We illustrate this approach using endangered palms that have been studied to varying degrees. Management decisions can be readily extended to other species based on our indicators. Thus, the conservation value of a species can be shared through existing databases with other botanic gardens and provide a list of recommendations toward a combined man- agement strategy for living collections. Our approach is easily implemented and well suited for decision-making by gardens and organizations interested in plant conservation. Resumen Las colecciones vivas en jardines botanicos son una parte fundamental y poco utilizada en la conservacion de plantas a nivel mundial. Un objetivo comun en el manejo de las colecciones botanicas vivas es mantener la mayor biodiversidad al menor costo economico y logistico. Sin embargo hasta ahora no existe una estrategia